Southern Cross the Dog

Bill Cheng

May 2013 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

In the tradition of Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O’Connor, Bill Cheng’s Southern Cross the Dog is an epic literary debut in which the bonds between three childhood friends are upended by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. In its aftermath, one young man must choose between the lure of the future and the claims of the past.
 
Having lost virtually everything in the fearsome storm—home, family, first love—Robert Chatham embarks on an odyssey that takes him through the deep South, from the desperation of a refugee camp to the fiery and raucous brothel Hotel Beau-Miel and into the Mississippi hinterland, where he joins a crew hired to clear the swamp and build a dam.

Along his journey he encounters piano-playing hustlers, ne’er-do-well Klansmen, well-intentioned whores, and a family of fur trappers, the L’Etangs, whose very existence is threatened by the swamp-clearing around them. The L’Etang brothers are fierce and wild but there is something soft about their cousin Frankie, possibly the only woman capable of penetrating Robert’s darkest places and overturning his conviction that he’s marked by the devil.

Teeming with language that renders both the savage beauty and complex humanity of our shared past, Southern Cross the Dog is a tour de force that heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.

Ratings and reviews

Some people love it, others seem to despise it, the latter solely because the author isn't Southern and isn't black. But the setting of this story is in a South long gone, so it doesn't make much difference anyway. . .And this book is not overly concerned with the black experience either, and not all characters are black. Its a wonderful story of people uprooted after the Great Mississippi Flood of the 20s, an homage to country blues, with voices entirely credible and full of heart.

Hard to read at first due to the style of writing (i.e. southern speak) Afterwards, couldn't put it down. Enjoyable characters. Very good for a first book. Look forward to more!

About the author

Bill Cheng received a BA in creative writing from Baruch College and is a graduate of Hunter College's MFA program. Born and raised in Queens, New York, he currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife. Southern Cross the Dog is his first novel.