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Title details for The Perishing by Natashia Deón - Available

The Perishing

by Natashia Deón
Lisa Reneé Pitts
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A Black immortal in 1930s Los Angeles seeks to recover the memory of her past in this visionary novel from NAACP Image Award nominee Natashia Deón
Lou, a young Black woman, wakes up in an alley in 1930s Los Angeles with no memory of how she got there or where she's from. Taken in by a caring foster family, Lou dedicates herself to her education while trying to put her mysterious origins behind her. She'll go on to become the first Black female journalist at the Los Angeles Times, but Lou's extraordinary life is about to take an even more remarkable turn. When she befriends a firefighter at a downtown boxing gym, Lou is shocked to realize that though she has no memory of meeting him, she's been drawing his face for years.
Increasingly certain that their paths previously crossed—and beset by unexplainable flashes from different eras haunting her dreams—Lou begins to believe she may be an immortal sent here for a very important reason, one that only others like her can explain. Setting out to investigate the mystery of her existence, Lou must make sense of the jumble of lifetimes calling to her, just as new forces threaten the existence of those around her.
Immersed in the rich historical tapestry of Los Angeles—Prohibition, the creation of Route 66, and the collapse of the St. Francis Dam—The Perishing is a stunning examination of love and justice through the eyes of one miraculous woman whose fate seems linked to the city she comes to call home.
"Remarkable, strange, and richly inventive, Natashia Deón's The Perishing will keep you up all night and haunt you long afterward. Deón's newest novel is a wonder and a feat."—R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 9, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705044797
      • File size: 327438 KB
      • Duration: 11:22:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Lisa Renee Pitts narrates the majority of this ambitious novel split between the 1930s and 22nd-century Los Angeles. The story also includes occasional flashbacks, one of which is narrated by Kevin R. Free. Lou is a young Black woman in 1930s Los Angeles who does not know anything of her past before the moment she suddenly appeared in an alley. Pitts does an excellent job voicing Lou on her journey from lost girl to confident woman. As Lou slowly learns about herself, Pitts's portrayal becomes more self-assured. Her depiction of Lou's best friend, Esther, is also of note; Esther is bold and pragmatic while Lou is often quiet and timid. Free narrates two brief sections with his usual skill and talent but is ultimately underutilized. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 13, 2021
      Deón follows the critically acclaimed Grace with a provocative if unruly adventure through time featuring an immortal Black woman struggling to discover her destiny. Lou wakes up naked in an alley in 1930s Los Angeles as a teenager, with no memory of her past. Taken in by a foster family, she completes her education and becomes a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, where her beat consists of reporting on the deaths of “colored people—all shades of brown: Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Native American, and, depending on our country’s mood, Irish Catholic.” Among those she interviews is a petty criminal who lives in an iron lung and a firefighter whom she has no memory of having met, but whose face she has drawn again and again for years. Interwoven are flashes of other lives, among them a murderess a century in the future, and the light-skinned lover of a Chinese doctor in 1871. These others are cognizant of their connection to Lou, but she knows nothing of them, and Deón burns a lot of pages with commentary on the various historical periods before elucidating Lou’s purpose. Lou does not discover who she really is, however, until the final pages, so though Deón can turn phrases in new and powerful ways, the story fails to find a satisfying ending. Deón is a very gifted writer, but this won’t go down as her best work.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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