Flags on the Bayou

A Novel

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, Marin Ireland, January LaVoy, Ray Porter, James Lee Burke

Winner of the 2024 Edgar Award for Best Novel!

From American master James Lee Burke comes a novel set in Civil War-era Louisiana as the South transforms and a brilliant cast of characters—enslaved and free women, plantation gentry, and battle-weary Confederate and Union soldiers—are caught in the maelstrom.

In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom.

When Hannah Laveau, a formerly enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed—and did—as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah. Flags on the Bayou is an engaging, action-packed narrative that includes a duel that ends in disaster, a brutal encounter with the local Union commander, repeated skirmishes with Confederate irregulars led by a diseased and probably deranged colonel, and a powerful story of love blossoming between an unlikely pair. As the story unfolds, it illuminates a past that reflects our present in sharp relief.

James Lee Burke, whose “evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder” (Entertainment Weekly), expertly renders the rich Louisiana landscape, from the sunsets on the Mississippi River to the dingy saloons of New Orleans to the tree-lined shores of the bayou and the cottonmouth snakes that dwell in its depths. Powerful and deeply moving, Flags on the Bayou is a story of tragic acts of war, class divisions upended, and love enduring through it all.

©2023 James Lee Burke. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

One of His Best

There is no other author like James Lee Burke, who can with such few descriptive words take me to a bayou or room in a shack and make me feel like I am there.

Entertainingly Descriptive

The story, the use of numerous and engaging narrators, along with the most enhancing and descriptive writing, makes this one of my most entertaining reads (listens) of the year. Do not miss this one!

Cajun country during the Civil War

The author speaks a bit at the end of this book, and among other things, says he thinks this book was his best work. This book is mighty good but his best? In my mind he's had so many great books I don't know how you can single out just one as his best. But since he's the author if he wants to think this, so be it!

This story is completely different from all his other books. This one takes us back to Civil War times although still in Cajun country in south Louisiana. There are a lot of different forces at work, the Unios soldiers who are occupying the area, the Confederate soldiers striving to take it back, the Jayhawkers who were sort of in between the two armies but mainly just plundered and destroyed everything in their wake, then there were the local citizens just trying to survive the war and have some kind of future, and finally there were the slaves who had the worst of it and had had the worst of it for many, many years. and they wanted their freedom

Into this environment the author crafts a great tale, although not always the happiest of times for just about everyone. It would have really sucked to be living in this time under these circumstances. Often, we think our current times are really bad, but it would take a lot to match the turmoil in this tale.

Hard to follow

Interesting book. contains a lot if history although a lot if comments seem very biased, not just from the characters standpoint

Good Story, Matchless Prose!

I'm only up to chapter 10, but the story already has me hooked, and the prose, as usual, are Matchless.

Born in the Soth

A sad story, as usual a beautiful book, well researched and told by knowledge that could only be gained by oral history.
Thank you for bringing the horror to life.

Burke's Best?

This book was written before the Dave Robicheaux series, which I love, and I think it’s better. Burke’s prose is unrivaled in its description of Louisiana’s beauty, people, brutality, and prejudice, both in the 1800s and today. Though set in different eras, “Flags on the Bayou” and the Robicheaux series deal with the Civil War and its aftermath. The primary lawmen in both (Sheriff Pierre Cauchon and Detective Dave Robicheaux) are prone to frequent ruminations and share a similar social conscience. My one quibble is that Burke seems to love the words “Visigoth” and “viscera”; I now expect them in any James Lee Burke book I listen to.

The narrators of this were excellent!

Took awhile

I was not pleased with this novel—at first, but I kept going. I became engaged with the characters, especially Pierre Cauchon and Miss Darla. As always, Burke’s poetic prose is beyond words and captivating. The name Burke was mentioned in the story, and I wonder if JLB was mentioning his ancestors.

A True Masterpiece

Just plain awesome JLB has a god given gift Can’t wait for his next book

Never disappointed!

I was transported into the period of this story by Mr Burke’s prose. The various narrators flesh out the characters so well. His writing style always astonishes me and never disappoints!