The Cage-maker: A Novel

by Nicole Seitz, Cassandra King Conroy (Foreword by)

Overview

A cache of secret documents unfolds a fascinating tale of fin de siècle New Orleans in this timeslip Southern gothic novel inspired by true events.

When Trish, a contemporary blogger, inherits an antique birdcage, she discovers a secret compartment full of letters, journals, and newspaper clippings. As she peruses the documents, Trish finds herself irresistibly drawn into the history of her family—a tale that is, as one letter puts it, “part love story and part horror and madness.”

In 1906 Dr. René Le Monnier is ready to retire as the coroner and physician of the New Orleans insane asylum. Still mourning his wife’s death, the Civil War veteran wants nothing more than to write his account of the Battle of Shiloh. But when a sixteen-year-old girl, Carmelite Kurucar, enlists his aid in saving her brother from a death sentence, the good doctor must reckon with old ghosts—including the case of a patient he may have tragically neglected.

Le Monnier’s efforts lead him to Bertrand Saloy, one of the richest men in New Orleans; to the Le Monnier mansion, which still haunts him; and down a dark family lineage “cursed” by a succession of wealth. Amid the mysteries and suspenseful intrigue, a French birdcage maker’s obsessive love for Madame Saloy emerges at the heart of the story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611178449
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Series:	Story River Books
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	247
Sales rank:	413,495
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nicole Seitz is the author of six previous novels, including, most recently, Beyond Molasses Creek and The Inheritance of Beauty. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.F.A. in illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she teaches art and summer workshops for creative writing and illustration. The Cage-maker is based on stories unearthed while researching her own family's history in New Orleans.

What People are Saying About This

Julie Cantrell

In her seventh novel, The Cage-maker, Nicole Seitz has crafted one of the most original and fascinating stories I've read in ages. With elaborate settings, mysterious characters, impressive illustrations, and tons of suspense, Seitz has delivered a captivating time-slip novel that escapes the confines of genre and enters that sacred space of darn-good storytelling.

Robert Hicks

Nicole Seitz's The Cage-maker takes us on an always riveting journey through the lives of a family a century ago. Using their letters we begin to understand the complications of both their lives and their times. She has given us a wonderful story, the gift of a worthy tale for sure.

Mark Powell

Moving fluidly between both literary forms and time periods, and in prose as gauzy and beautiful as its illustrations, Nicole Seitz's The Cage-maker is, like the birdcage at the novel's heart, something both timeless and completely new. This gorgeous and deeply moving novel is part tomorrow's blog post, part Balzac, reborn in the deep South.

Editorial Reviews

"Moving fluidly between both literary forms and time periods, and in prose as gauzy and beautiful as its illustrations, Nicole Seitz's The Cage-maker is, like the birdcage at the novel's heart, something both timeless and completely new. This gorgeous and deeply moving novel is part tomorrow's blog post, part Balzac, reborn in the deep South."--Mark Powell, author of Small Treasons and The Sheltering


"Nicole Seitz's The Cage-maker takes us on an always riveting journey through the lives of a family a century ago. Using their letters we begin to understand the complications of both their lives and their times. She has given us a wonderful story, the gift of a worthy tale for sure."--Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South and The Orphan Mother


"In her seventh novel, The Cage-maker, Nicole Seitz has crafted one of the most original and fascinating stories I've read in ages. With elaborate settings, mysterious characters, impressive illustrations, and tons of suspense, Seitz has delivered a captivating time-slip novel that escapes the confines of genre and enters that sacred space of darn-good storytelling."--Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist of The Feathered Bone

From the Publisher