Zuitoun - Dave Eggers

In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans city. Most residents had abounded the city before she struck, but Zuitoun stayed behind to look after the properties he had so carefully built and managed.  Whilst in the city he began to rescue some of his fellow neighbours and look after their dogs, however things were about to take an ugly turn. His wife who had fled to keep the family safe could only learn through brief phone calls and radio and TV broadcasts the horrors that were truly unfolding in the city.

Why Read - I am fascinated by the stories that came out of this city during the Katrina disaster, as their was more than just the horrors of the flooding and the damage from the Hurricanes. I have read another books of stories from this city, but this one caught my eye, so I asked borrowed it from the local library to read.

Amazing.  I thought this book was so well written, so captivating and moving from start to finish.  It gave a whole new perspective of the disaster and even though it was from one mans point of view, you could relate to this easily and feel exactly what he was going through. Their was enough background on the family throughout this story to give the each family member depth and you could really get to the heart of the characters.

I think with the other book on this topic (Voices from the storm) it was almost harder to get a grip on each person as it was a short overview of their stories, and where it jumped from person to person it made it a little harder to relate to. As you were just following one family this made this version of events hit home that little bit harder.

It would be weird to say I enjoyed this book. But it is defiantly up their with one of my top reads of the year. It was so well written and captivating. The way it was written as well, helped set the mood and the thoughts of the book that you could really imagine what it must feel like from their point of view. I couldn't put this book down and thought it was a fascinating read.