After the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, everything in fifteen-year-old Jesse's life deep in rural Louisiana is derailed. His father, Emmett, a rig worker who survived the blast, but carries a terrible secret about a colleague who did not, unravels. He moves the family to Nowheresville, drinks himself to despair, and hounds Jesse about being a man.

When Emmet finally abandons the family, Jesse takes up the burden of being the man of the house: it takes almost no time for him to fail. His mother is sexually assaulted. His firecracker of a sister boldly explores her sexuality, where Jesse falters in his own attempts at romance. Taking his father's lessons to heart, Jesse lashes out, getting into fist fights, chasing sex, and finding iffy ways to earn money. When he sets in motion a chain of events that leads his family into danger, Jesse must finally decide if he can save his loved ones by being true to his gentle nature, or if proving himself means adopting the cruelty of his father and his surroundings.

Influenced by the dark edginess of Southern Gothic literature but set in 1984 to the music of Tina Turner, Madonna, and Stevie Nicks, After We Drowned ties together themes of environmental crisis and poverty, noting that it is poor people who often bear the brunt of ecological disaster. This is a coming-of-age story with a stealthy, yet kick-ass feminist subplot set in the swampy heart of Cajun America.

Jill Yonit Goldberg's profile page

Jill Yonit Goldberg is a Prairie-born former Montrealer living in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territories. Recent work includes essays, short stories, and very occasional poems that have been included in publications such as Room Magazine, The London Reader, and subTerrain among others. She is co-author on The Fire Still Burns: Life In and After Residential School (Purich Books/UBC Press, 2023). Jill is half of a tango dancing pair, a half-decent photographer, and a very occasional half-marathoner. She teaches literature and creative writing at Langara College.