The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies

October 19, 2020
Newman fills her quirky collection (after Parallel to Paradise) with moments of connection as protagonists grapple with loss and longing. “Swisher Sweets” follows an unnamed narrator dealing with her ex-husband’s sudden death. Though the narrator and her husband had been divorced for years, she keeps his prosthetic, tattooed arm since the crematorium wouldn’t incinerate it. “The House of Naan and Saffron” follows a boy who leaves his small Norwegian village for India. Kris is 13 when his mother, Livinia, is nearly killed in an accident involving a box of ammunition dropped into a fireplace, and is saved by her lover, who dies in her arms. After that experience, Kris’s preacher father uproots the family to Varanasi, where more tragedy awaits. In the New Orleans–set title story, 10-year-old Katrina is named after the 2005 storm: she was born in the Superdome during the flood. She’s used to being cared for by her teenage brothers, but after their mother dies, they take her to a Catholic orphanage. There, Katrina spies on the sisters at night, watching one of them dress up like Madonna, and learns a number of fascinating, heartbreaking things about her family. With candor, wry wit and memorable details, these stories shimmer. Agent: Kathryn Green, Kathryn Green Literary.