Synopsis/blurb....
"Seraphim is a thrilling page-turner, as well as a deeply humane investigation into the many forms of justice. It will make you look at the world differently---as much as a book could hope to do.” - Jonathan Safran Foer, author, Everything is Illuminated
From a former New Orleans public defender comes a gritty and thrilling interrogation of crime, violence, and the limits of justice in the chaotic times after Hurricane Katrina…
A 16-year-old confesses to the murder of a local celebrity—a hero of New Orleans’s shaky post-storm recovery... The boy’s father, doing life in prison on the installment plan for a series of minor offenses, will do anything to save him...
Enter Ben Alder, a carpetbagging attorney (and former rabbinical seminary student) who has drifted down to New Orleans. He winds up defending them both.
Ben and his partner, Boris, are public defenders obsessed with redeeming their case history of failures, and willing to do anything to protect their clients. As Ben tries to disrupt a corrupt and racist criminal justice system that believes an inexplicable crime has been solved, he confronts his own legacy of loss and faith. And as the novel hurtles towards its tragic, redemptive conclusion, Ben finds himself an onlooker and a perpetrator where he thought he was the hero.
A riveting and propulsive story about loyalty and grief, Seraphim is also an unflinching cross-examination of a broken legal system; a heartbreaking portrait of a beautiful, lost city, filled with children who kill and are killed; and a discomforting reflection on privilege, prejudice, and power.
A fascinating debut novel from Joshua Perry which focuses on the aftermath of a murder in New Orleans and the impact of the crime on the young alleged perpetrator, Robert Johnson; his fractured family and the two public defenders; Ben and Boris who endeavour to protect their young client from what passes for justice in the New Orleans court system.
Suffice to say the justice system or what passes for it, doesn't really work well for poor, young, black teenagers, or indeed older men. (We cross paths with Robert's mainly estranged father who himself is in a similar spot of bother, but a little bit more world weary and resigned to his fate.)
In a lot of respects I could buy the portrayal of Robert with his disadvantaged upbringing and situation as a victim. Joshua Perry, the author invokes a sense of outrage and frustration at how the legal system works (or doesn't work depending on your perspective). The narrative focuses on Ben in the main, trying to reconstruct events, formulate theories and elicit angles in order to provide Robert with a defence that might help him avoid a long period of prison time.
I liked how he worked and uncovered witnesses and evidence. I enjoyed the previous and other current cases which inveigled themselves into the narrative, fleshing out the main premise of injustice, racism and a rigged game. I enjoyed the sometimes combative nature of the relationship between Ben and Boris, both fighting the good fight for the underdog but not necessarily ever truly confident of winning. There's a load of family baggage borne, which underlines that loss and grief can be visited on everyone, irrespective of race, religion and privilege.
Great setting of New Orleans post-Katrina. I've never been a massive fan of the city in my reading, but Perry may just have given me pause to take the blinkers off in future.
I would have liked at bit more attention brought to the actual murder victim herself, she barely gets a look in as the narrative primarily deals with the other side of the coin.
Overall, I really liked the book. There's a flow to the prose which kept me turning the pages. There's a sadness to the story, which lives on after the final pages are turned.
I'll be interested in seeing what Joshua Perry turns up with next.
4 from 5
Read - August, 2024
Published - 2024
Source - review ARC from publisher Melville House
Format - Paperback ARC
Page count - 270
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