After We Drowned

Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize and the New Horizons Award, honourable mention in the Grand Prize category!

After an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, everything in fifteen-year-old Jesse’s life deep in rural Louisiana is derailed. His father, Emmett, a rig worker who survived the blast, but carries a terrible secret about a colleague who did not, unravels. He moves the family to Nowheresville, drinks himself to despair, and hounds Jesse about being a man.

When Emmet finally abandons the family, Jesse takes up the burden of being the man of the house: it takes almost no time for him to fail. His mother is sexually assaulted. His firecracker of a sister boldly explores her sexuality, where Jesse falters in his own attempts at romance. Taking his father’s lessons to heart, Jesse lashes out, getting into fistfights, chasing sex, and finding iffy ways to earn money. When he sets in motion a chain of events that leads his family into danger, Jesse must finally decide if he can save his loved ones by being true to his gentle nature, or if proving himself means adopting the cruelty of his father and his surroundings. After We Drowned is a tragic coming-of-age story with a stealthy, yet kick-ass, feminist subplot set in the swampy heart of Cajun America.

Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize and the New Horizons Award, honourable mention in the Grand Prize category!

After an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, everything in fifteen-year-old Jesse’s life deep in rural Louisiana is derailed. His father, Emmett, a rig worker who survived the blast, but carries a terrible secret about a colleague who did not, unravels. He moves the family to Nowheresville, drinks himself to despair, and hounds Jesse about being a man.

When Emmet finally abandons the family, Jesse takes up the burden of being the man of the house: it takes almost no time for him to fail. His mother is sexually assaulted. His firecracker of a sister boldly explores her sexuality, where Jesse falters in his own attempts at romance. Taking his father’s lessons to heart, Jesse lashes out, getting into fistfights, chasing sex, and finding iffy ways to earn money. When he sets in motion a chain of events that leads his family into danger, Jesse must finally decide if he can save his loved ones by being true to his gentle nature, or if proving himself means adopting the cruelty of his father and his surroundings. After We Drowned is a tragic coming-of-age story with a stealthy, yet kick-ass, feminist subplot set in the swampy heart of Cajun America.