Voices Rising II: More Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project

During the rebuilding of the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina, University of New Orleans students began collecting personal stories and the "Katrina Narrative Project" was born. The second compilation of interviews focuses both on the people who stayed behind to face the storm, and those who fled, sometimes only to return to a city they no longer knew. Occasionally funny, often inspiring, and always heartbreaking, these stories reveal the indomitable character of the Big Easy. Whether it's the story told by the chef who returned after spending three years in Des Moines, but says, "coming home was the worst mistake of my life," or the Nigerian professor who spent several days trapped in an attic during the storm, readers will be moved by the suffering of the citizenry and overwhelmed by the smallest gestures of aid. Antoine has done a superb job of selecting stories that allow these people to speak for themselves while also conveying a universal message. With the gulf oil disaster bringing new pain upon a city still in recovery, readers may find the addition of these voices to the narrative overwhelmingly heartrending. (May)