Where the Line Bleeds

ISBN: 1932841385

Author: Ward, Jesmyn

Condition: Used

Joshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippis Gulf Coast. Theyve just finished high school and need to find jobs, but in a failing post-Katrina economy, its not easy. Joshua gets work on the docks, but Christophes not so lucky. Desperate to alleviate the familys poverty, he starts to sell drugs. He can hide it from his grandmother but not his twin, and the two grow increasingly estranged. Christophes downward spiral is accelerated first by crack, then by the reappearance of the twins parents: Cille, who abandoned them, and Sandman, a creepy, predatory addict. Sandman taunts Christophe, eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins. Ward inhabits these characters, and this world black Creole, poor, and drug-riddled, yet shored by family and community to a rare degree, without a trace of irony or distance.