Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Salvage the Bones is Jesmyn Ward's second novel, and it was published by Bloomsbury in 2011. The novel follows a working-class African-American family in Mississippi as they prepare for Hurricane Katrina and then through the storm's aftermath.

As Hurricane Katrina approaches, Salvage the Bones tells the story of a desperately poor family in the Mississippi backwoods. Esch, 14, and her three mischievous brothers, as well as their alcoholic father, race against the clock to prepare their rotting junkyard of land and stockpile food. With Esch pregnant and her brother snatching scraps for his pit-litter, bull's these motherless children must protect and nurture one another in order to survive.

Soon afterward, Hurricane Katrina hits. The family is forced into the attic and eventually onto the roof as water begins to flood into their home. As the water continues to rise, they make a desperate bid to swim to another house on a hill, but in the maelstrom, China and her puppies are lost. After the end of the storm, the entire town has been leveled, Manny refuses to take responsibility for Esch's baby, and Skeetah still holds out hope that he will find China.

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10846336