In the sweltering autumn of 1803 New Orleans, the Grandissime family rules over a Creole world that stands on the edge of transformation. When the Louisiana Purchase strips the city of its French sovereignty and hands it to American rule, the old families must reckon with newcomers who see opportunity where they see sacrilege. Into this crucible steps Joseph Frowenfeld, a earnest young American apothecary trying to build a life amid rivalries he barely understands, while Honoré Grandissime, the family's proud patriarch, maneuvers to preserve legacy and honor in a society where both have become complicated. But it is the shadow of Bras-Coupé, a former African prince now enslaved, that haunts the family's secrets and demands they face the moral contradictions at the heart of their world. George Washington Cable wrote this novel with the furious courage of a man who knew his homeland's sins and refused to look away, weaving a tale of blood, money, and memory into one of America's earliest unflinching examinations of racial injustice.
