Matt Bondurant
Oleander City
A Novel Based on a True Story
June 14, 2022
Advance Praise for Oleander City:
“With austere prose, compelling characters and a gripping true story, Oleander City bears down on its characters like a category five storm, forcing three lost souls to discover who they truly are.
-Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Master’s Son
"In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant braids the events of the worst natural disaster in American history with one of the great untold stories of American culture. Only a writer of Bondurant's skill could achieve such complicated braiding. This is history written like a novel, a complicated legacy of human tragedy, race, and class distilled into one hell of a read."
-Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author
“In Oleander City, Bondurant reminds us of the horrors of our humanity but amid it all, that there are those who fight for goodness, for love and truth, that we are brutal but also beautiful brutes. This is a brilliant novel.”
-Julianna Baggott, national bestselling author of Girl Talk and Pure
"Oleander City is a surreal blend of the real and the imagined, where broken lives traverse the ravaged landscapes of hurt and loss. Matt Bondurant depicts characters who carry the great weight of tragedy, and he reminds us that where there is heavy burden, there is also the strength to bear it."
-Michael Farris Smith, author of Nick and The Fighter
“Bondurant’s Oleander City is the best kind of historical novel. Richly imagined, exquisitely written, this tale of disaster and perseverance is both visceral and urgent. The intertwined tales of Galveston mud and spilled blood, like the dizzying combinations of the book's bare fisted boxers, make this novel a knockout.”
-M.O. Walsh, New York Times Bestselling Author of My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize
“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant takes the carbon of history and, with the pressure and heat of beautifully crafted prose, sensitively drawn characters, and a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching narrative, creates a brilliant diamond of a novel.
-Snowden Wright, author of Play Pretty Blues and American Pop
“Oleander City is a classic historical novel that focuses on characters, real and imagined, set against the sweeping backdrop of dramatic action...Moving at a pace befitting the subject, this book will keep you reading into the night.”
-Chris Offutt, author of Shifty’s Boys
“Matt Bondurant’s latest work of historical fiction is a deftly woven tale of humanity amidst tragedy. Its vivid characters traverse the broken landscape of hurricane-ravaged Galveston, their lives intersecting in surprising and complicated ways. I won’t forget any of them—especially Hester, a stoic orphan girl accompanied by an old hound dog. It’s a gripping story told with lush and immersive detail.”
-Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens and We Want What We Want
“From the catastrophic chaos and horror of the worst natural disaster in US history, Matt Bondurant extracts three very human stories of individuals who found themselves caught up in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy and its overwhelming aftermath...This novel surprises with its perceptiveness and astonishes with its poignant illustration of the deeper and more sustaining values of beauty and truth and love.”
-Clay Reynolds, author of The Vigil, Franklin's Crossing and The Tentmaker
-Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Master’s Son
"In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant braids the events of the worst natural disaster in American history with one of the great untold stories of American culture. Only a writer of Bondurant's skill could achieve such complicated braiding. This is history written like a novel, a complicated legacy of human tragedy, race, and class distilled into one hell of a read."
-Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author
“In Oleander City, Bondurant reminds us of the horrors of our humanity but amid it all, that there are those who fight for goodness, for love and truth, that we are brutal but also beautiful brutes. This is a brilliant novel.”
-Julianna Baggott, national bestselling author of Girl Talk and Pure
"Oleander City is a surreal blend of the real and the imagined, where broken lives traverse the ravaged landscapes of hurt and loss. Matt Bondurant depicts characters who carry the great weight of tragedy, and he reminds us that where there is heavy burden, there is also the strength to bear it."
-Michael Farris Smith, author of Nick and The Fighter
“Bondurant’s Oleander City is the best kind of historical novel. Richly imagined, exquisitely written, this tale of disaster and perseverance is both visceral and urgent. The intertwined tales of Galveston mud and spilled blood, like the dizzying combinations of the book's bare fisted boxers, make this novel a knockout.”
-M.O. Walsh, New York Times Bestselling Author of My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize
“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant takes the carbon of history and, with the pressure and heat of beautifully crafted prose, sensitively drawn characters, and a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching narrative, creates a brilliant diamond of a novel.
-Snowden Wright, author of Play Pretty Blues and American Pop
“Oleander City is a classic historical novel that focuses on characters, real and imagined, set against the sweeping backdrop of dramatic action...Moving at a pace befitting the subject, this book will keep you reading into the night.”
-Chris Offutt, author of Shifty’s Boys
“Matt Bondurant’s latest work of historical fiction is a deftly woven tale of humanity amidst tragedy. Its vivid characters traverse the broken landscape of hurricane-ravaged Galveston, their lives intersecting in surprising and complicated ways. I won’t forget any of them—especially Hester, a stoic orphan girl accompanied by an old hound dog. It’s a gripping story told with lush and immersive detail.”
-Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens and We Want What We Want
“From the catastrophic chaos and horror of the worst natural disaster in US history, Matt Bondurant extracts three very human stories of individuals who found themselves caught up in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy and its overwhelming aftermath...This novel surprises with its perceptiveness and astonishes with its poignant illustration of the deeper and more sustaining values of beauty and truth and love.”
-Clay Reynolds, author of The Vigil, Franklin's Crossing and The Tentmaker
