The Levee

by William Kent Krueger

Libby audiobook 4 hours

Read by: JD Jackson

Published: 2023

Genre: Adult Historical Fiction

I didn't enjoy this as much as This Tender Land, but it was interesting to listen to and made me curious to know more. In 1927, the Mississippi River flooded in a dramatic fashion! I was curious about how much of this story was fact and how much was fiction. The author's note at the end (by Krueger himself) was super interesting! 

In the story, "Mobley" is bringing three convicts with him to rescue his brother "Kane" and his daughter Sylvia, along with their servants. Kane has built a levee around his estate, named Ballymore, and refuses to leave. Sylvia won't leave her father and the servants Isaac and Ada won't leave Sylvia.

It took me a bit to be able to tell the convicts apart. Cassidy is the dirty dog who tries to sabotage everything, steal, and escape. Dobbs is the wrongfully convicted man who designed a dam before he went to war. His brother (or brother-in-law?) built it shoddily and skedaddled with the money he saved. When the dam collapsed and people died, Dobbs took the fall for it. Boone is the strong young man who falls in love with Sylvia.

The river is really the main character in this story. It is powerful and not to be "tamed" by mere people. 

It was most interesting to me to listen to Krueger's explanation of how this story came to be. I love that he put it away for twenty years after writing it and then came back to it. The writer's process is fascinating.