"Bondurant is a nimble writer…[His] prose is lyrical when the whiskey floods in, but also when the blood flows out."

-New York Times, praise for the author

“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant braids the events of the worst natural disaster in American history with one of the great untold stories of American culture. Only a writer of Bondurant’s skill could achieve such complicated braiding. This is history written like a novel, a complicated legacy of human tragedy, race, and class distilled into one hell of a read.”

-Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author

“With austere prose, compelling characters, and a gripping true story, Oleander City bears down on its characters like a category five storm, forcing three lost souls to discover who they truly are. More timely than one would think, this tale of natural catastrophe, racial injustice, and lawlessness ultimately illuminates the humanity that motivates and unites us all. A certifiable page-turner, Oleander City pulls at you with the dark undertow of an America that isn’t quite bygone.”

-Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Master’s Son

“Bondurant’s Oleander City is the best kind of historical novel. Richly imagined, exquisitely written, this tale of disaster and perseverance is both visceral and urgent. The intertwined tales of Galveston mud and spilled blood, like the dizzying combinations of the book’s bare-fisted boxers, make this novel a knockout.”

-M. O. Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize

“Bondurant weaves together fascinating backstories with vivid descriptions of the storm and its aftermath, showing that it takes many types of courage to fight for what is right.”

-Booklist

“This novel surprises with its perceptiveness and astonishes with its poignant illustration of the deeper and more sustaining values of beauty and truth and love.”

-Clay Reynolds, author of The Vigil, Franklin’s Crossing, and The Tentmaker

“Matt Bondurant’s latest work of historical fiction is a deftly woven tale of humanity amidst tragedy. Its vivid characters traverse the broken landscape of hurricane-ravaged Galveston, their lives intersecting in surprising and complicated ways. I won’t forget any of them—especially Hester, a stoic orphan girl accompanied by an old hound dog. It’s a gripping story told with lush and immersive detail.”

-Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens and We Want What We Want

“Set against the sweeping backdrop of dramatic action…this book will keep you reading into the night.”

-Chris Offutt, author of Shifty’s Boys

“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant takes the carbon of history and, with the pressure and heat of beautifully crafted prose, sensitively drawn characters, and a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching narrative, creates a brilliant diamond of a novel. Bondurant hurls readers through the Galveston hurricane of 1900, past figures as legendary as Jack Johnson and Clara Barton, into collision with the Ku Klux Klan, and straight toward the dark, murky truth of the American Dream. Oleander City, like all diamonds, is a gift to last forever.”

-Snowden Wright, author of Play Pretty Blues and American Pop

Internationally bestselling author of Lawless, the basis of the feature film starring Shia LaBeouf

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Author website: MattBondurant.com

Follow the author on Twitter: @mbondurant

Also available from Blackstone: The Night Swimmer, Lawless, and The Third Translation