The Cage-maker: A Novel

Nicole Seitz

août 2017 · Univ of South Carolina Press

À propos de cet e-book

A cache of secret documents unfolds a fascinating tale of fin de siècle New Orleans in this timeslip Southern gothic novel inspired by true events.

When Trish, a contemporary blogger, inherits an antique birdcage, she discovers a secret compartment full of letters, journals, and newspaper clippings. As she peruses the documents, Trish finds herself irresistibly drawn into the history of her family—a tale that is, as one letter puts it, “part love story and part horror and madness.”

In 1906 Dr. René Le Monnier is ready to retire as the coroner and physician of the New Orleans insane asylum. Still mourning his wife’s death, the Civil War veteran wants nothing more than to write his account of the Battle of Shiloh. But when a sixteen-year-old girl, Carmelite Kurucar, enlists his aid in saving her brother from a death sentence, the good doctor must reckon with old ghosts—including the case of a patient he may have tragically neglected.

Le Monnier’s efforts lead him to Bertrand Saloy, one of the richest men in New Orleans; to the Le Monnier mansion, which still haunts him; and down a dark family lineage “cursed” by a succession of wealth. Amid the mysteries and suspenseful intrigue, a French birdcage maker’s obsessive love for Madame Saloy emerges at the heart of the story.

À propos de l'auteur

Nicole Seitz is the author of six previous novels, including, most recently, Beyond Molasses Creek and The Inheritance of Beauty. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.F.A. in illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she teaches art and summer workshops for creative writing and illustration. The Cage-maker is based on stories unearthed while researching her own family's history in New Orleans.