Half of Paradise

Description

Toussaint Boudreaux, a black docker in New Orleans, puts up with his co-workers' racism because he has to, and moonlights as a prize-fighter in the hope of a better life - but the only break he gets lands him in penal servitude. J.P. Winfield, a hick with a gift for twelve-string guitar, finds his break into showbiz leads to the flipside of the American dream. Avery Broussard, descendant of an aristocratic French family, runs whiskey after what remains of his land is repossessed...The interlocking stories of these three men are an elegy to the realities of life in 1950s, Louisiana, their destinies fixed by the circumstances of their birth and time. Yet each carries the hope of redemption.

James Lee Burke is the author of numerousprevious novels, including twelve featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana and New Iberia, Louisiana.

It's been a long time since a crime novel made me cry. It's been a long time since a crime novel made every hair on my body stand on end. THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN did both - INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY James Lee Burke has a sophisticated and brilliantly expressed vision of humanity - TLS Burke is the poet of the tortured South and never fails to connect at all levels - TIME OUT No crime writer in America can hold a pen to Burke's mastery of style and powers of evocation and empathy; this is prose that cuts straight to the heart - GUARDIAN