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Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

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Book at Bedtime: Salvage the Bones

Book at Bedtime: Salvage the Bones: Episode 2

Salvage the Bones

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Salvage the Bones, Episode 2

Skeetah, Big Henry and Esch buy dog food, but Esch needs to steal something from the store

Hurricane Katrina is growing in the Gulf. Skeetah, Big Henry and Esch buy dog food from the store. Esch steals a pregnancy test which confirms her suspicions about her condition.

By Jesmyn Ward. 
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne.

It is 2005. Hurricane Katrina is growing out in the Gulf. Skeetah, Big Henry and Esch drive into the nearby town to buy dog food for China. Esch secretly steals a pregnancy test and when she gets it home, it confirms her suspicions about her condition. 

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.

Read by Cush Jumbo


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

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

By Jesmyn Ward. Story about 15-year-old Esch, who lives in poverty in rural Mississippi

By Jesmyn Ward. Story based on the author's own experience of Hurricane Katrina and growing up black and poor in rural Mississippi

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