Where the Line Bleeds

About this book

Joshua and Christophe are twins raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippis Gulf Coast. Theyve just finished high school and need to find jobs but in a failing post-Katrina economy its not easy. Joshua gets work on the docks but Christophes not so lucky. Desperate to alleviate the familys poverty he starts to sell drugs. He can hide it from his grandmother but not his twin and the two grow increasingly estranged. Christophes downward spiral is accelerated first by crack then by the reappearance of the twins parents: Cille who abandoned them and Sandman a creepy predatory addict. Sandman taunts Christophe eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins. Ward inhabits these characters and this world black Creole poor and drug-riddled yet shored by family and community to a rare degree without a trace of irony or distance.