Feature Book of the Week
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A World of His Own:
In the Land of the Creoles By Arlette Gaffrey |
Almost 200 years before Katrina ambushed New Orleans, a young man from France was starting out a new life after a harrowing narrow escape from his homeland and its bloody revolution. In her debut novel, "A World of His Own: In the Land of the Creoles", author Arlette Gaffrey dives deep into her own ancestry and into her birthplace’s history to weave the story of Andre Raphael de Javon, an orphan in his 20s who lost his family to the French Revolution.
In this epic saga of love, marriage, and betrayal, we follow Andre from his humble beginnings in the 19th century Crescent City as he becomes one of the wealthiest plantation owners in the Territory. When the daughter of his mentor falls in love with him, de Javon ventures elsewhere and marries the seductive Gabrielle Ste. Claire. The marriage sours, his wife dies, and Andre is left a widower saddled with the care of her illegitimate son.
Will Andre find love again, despite the pain he has endured? And will Julie Marie still have him, a man who is 11 years her senior with an illegitimate child? In her story, Gaffrey masterfully folds in historical goodies that shed light on New Orlean’s burgeoning adolescence. The pirate Jean Lafitte and even General Andrew Jackson are but some of the colorful characters that pop up throughout, making A World of His Own a work of fascinating historical fiction.
