Esch’s brother Skeetah has an extremely close bond with his pit bull, China, telling his friend Marquise that “some people understand that between man and dog is a relationship. The book’s characters are complex, their relationships with non-human animals and the natural world neither purely good nor evil. Indeed, Salvage the Bones raises more questions than answers-difficult questions about humans’ (im)morality and our roles in creating the climate catastrophes that threaten us. This book does not offer easy answers about such complex issues nor does it provide any solutions for how to deal with ecological crises and the threat they pose. There is no garbage pick-up, and certainly no recycling, for folks living in the Pit: Esch and her family “dump garbage in a shallow ditch” and “burn it,” the stench of burnt plastic filling the air they breathe.Įxamples like this one, strewn throughout the novel, powerfully demonstrate the relationship between environmental justice, racial justice, and income inequality.

But their relationship with the land is complicated by poverty and their location in a remote rural area.

Set on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in the span of the twelve days before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, Salvage the Bonesis the story of 14-year-old Esch and her family, who live on the outskirts of the fictional town of Bois Sauvage on a patch of land they call the “Pit.” These characters are closely tied to the land they live on: they swim in the Pit’s muddy waters eat potatoes growing from its ground and are familiar with animals from wild dogs to frogs to armadillos.

Salvage the bones