Bayou

Summary

Bayou is Pamela Jekel’s masterpiece of the deep Southern delta country, hailed as “Best Historic Fiction” by Library Journal, a New York Times bestseller, and a Waldenbooks bestseller. From the Cajun swamp cabins to the great river plantations of the Mississippi and the glittering night spots of Jazz Age New Orleans, Bayou sweeps readers into the mysterious and fascinating Louisiana delta and into the hearts and lives of four indomitable women: Olivia, a headstrong Cajun beauty, Celisma, a fiercely loyal mulatto slave, Manon, the toast of New Orleans, and Zoe, a convent-bred Creole who seeks and finds her destiny on her own terms. Jekel brings the sultry delta alive with rich historical detail, a glittering mirage of Louisiana cockfights and duels, Mardi Gras, opulent plantations and sleazy “Big Easy” bordellos, jazz clubs and steamboats and voodoo queens in this lushly fertile Eden. Spanning a hundred and fifty years of a land under ten different flags. Bayou is cotton and the War of 1812, sugar cane and the Civil War, and moonshine and World War I. Bayou is four generations of cultural clashes in a violent and seductive world, at once exotic and uniquely American, a way of life that will never be seen again.