The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press has released “The House on Esplanade,” a century-spanning historical fiction from playwright and professor Larry Gray.
“Every year since November 11, 1918, in a house on New Orleans’ Esplanade Avenue, Yvonne St. Amant lights a candle for her husband, lost in the Great War. Then on this same day in 1933, a young woman brings a baby to Yvonne’s door before shortly disappearing. The baby, nicknamed Bing, grows into a thoughtful, precocious woman whose life intertwines with many of the biggest events of the twentieth century,” according to a news release.
Bing explores abroad, finding romance and heartbreak in Paris, art in the Côte d’Azur, faith in Istanbul. But she always returns to the house on Esplanade.
Bing’s one ambition through it all: “I don’t want to grow old before I grow wise.”
Gray was a longtime English professor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, and developed his love of theater as a published playwright and director. He has published many short stories in journals and written children’s stories.
“The House on Esplanade” (344 pages, $20) can be purchased online at https://ulpress.org/ and other major retailers such as Amazon, Ingram, Barnes & Noble, and Baker & Taylor.
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