By Jesmyn Ward.

Skeetah and Manny's cousin Rico organise a savage dog fight in the woods. It is watched by Esch and their friends. If Rico wins, Skeetah must give up one of China's puppies, something he will avoid at all costs.

It is 2005. Fifteen-year-old Esch is the narrator of the novel. She lives in poverty with her brothers and her father in the Mississippi woods near the small town of Bois Sauvage. Skeetah's beloved pit-bull China is a fighting dog and her puppies will be trained to fight too, if they survive. Esch's mother died giving birth to her youngest brother Junior. The only other people in Esch's world are her father, her older brother Randall and her brother's friends. They include Manny, who she worships and gives herself to freely without getting any love or respect in return. The story takes place against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina forming out at sea, then descending on the country with terrifying force.

Salvage The Bones won the 2011 National Book Award in America. It is Jesmyn Ward's second novel and is based on her own experience of Hurricane Katrina and growing up black and in a poor family in rural Mississippi. She is currently the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi.

Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Read by Cush Jumbo

Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4. Show less