SRJ: It’s a very poignant tale, the story of Katrina, the loss the storm took.
JOS: So many different angles over the years have been told. Through my work with Asheville Citizen Times, I get to interview authors who come through town. I was working on this novel just as I interviewed Daniel Wallace about his release, The Kings and Queens of Rhone. He said, “I never know what a book is about until after I’ve written it. I don’t even concern myself with that question.” Then three months later, it occurs to me what my novel was actually about, which is my dad dying. It was an emotional journey around the same age, the whole family division, the family roles reconstructing themselves after an absence. The roles shifted.
SRJ: That’s so interesting, especially given Evangeline’s choice to stay with her dad because that’s where she felt connected. Meanwhile, her sister felt lost by the whole situation. The family rearranged.
JOS: She [the sister] arguably had more to lose—all her status, her position—but it really wasn’t there to go back to any more, you know? What she had wasn’t really a connection to the land, but her status and her privilege and she was never going to get that back.