The Yellow House - (National Book Award Winner) by Sarah M Broom

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A brilliant, haunting and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Yellow House

Winner of the 2019 National Book Award in Nonfiction

"[An] extraordinary, engrossing debut . . . kinetic and omnivorous . . . [Broom] pushes past the baseline expectations of memoir as a genre to create an entertaining and inventive amalgamation of literary forms. Part oral history, part urban history, part celebration of a bygone way of life, The Yellow House is a full indictment of the greed, discrimination, indifference and poor city planning that led her family's home to be wiped off the map. It is an instantly essential text, examining the past, present and possible future of the city of New Orleans, and of America writ large."-New York Times Book Review

"[A] forceful, rolling and many-chambered new memoir.... [Broom's] memoir isn't just a Katrina story -- it has a lot more on its mind. But the storm and the way it scattered her large family across America give this book both its grease and its gravitas.... This book is dense with characters and stories. It's a big, simmering pot that comes to a boil at the right times.... This is a major book that I suspect will come to be considered among the essential memoirs of this vexing decade. There are a lot of complicated emotions coursing through its veins. It throws the image of an exceptional American city into dark relief."--New York Times

"The memoir from Louisiana native Broom tells the story of her mother's beloved shotgun house in east New Orleans and the family she raised there. The house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and Broom writes about the racial and economic inequality that has haunted New Orleans for decades. Author Heidi Julavits called the book "a masterpiece of history, politics, sociology and memory."--Los Angeles Times, "7 Highly Anticipated Books to Get You Through the Dog Days of August"

"Broom's book is a memoir -- but also so much more. The New Orleans native has written a hybrid of the most exquisite kind, part family history, part archaeological dig, part self-exegesis. It all comes back to the house of the title, a "New Orleans East" shotgun dwelling that has given hope, heartbreak, shelter and transformation to decades of Broom's family. And Broom has used it to inspire something new."--Washington Post, "The 10 Books to Read in August"

"A house that was wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina and the family that struggled to exist inside it live forever in these pages. With the tenacity of memory and sharp tools of research, Broom proves you can go home again." -- Oprah Daily, "Memoirs That Changed a Generation"

"I'm most excited about reading The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom. I tend to love books that capture a sense of place, and I've always been fascinated with New Orleans. Like Jamaica, New Orleans is a destination people seek out to have a good time, but few people see the reality behind the touristy facade. Very rarely do I see a story of the people who have been in New Orleans for generations--this memoir promises an intimate, beautiful portrait of a black family and the place they call home."--Nicole Dennis-Benn in Vanity Fair

"A remarkable journey...Her tale is one of loss, love, and resilience."--Robin Roberts, Good Morning America

"Sarah M. Broom's gorgeous debut, The Yellow House, reads as elegy and prayer. The titular house is the fulcrum for Broom's memoir about her large and complex family. Perhaps more important, it stands in for the countless ways America has failed and continues to fail African Americans...Sarah M. Broom is a writer of great intellect and breadth. She embraces moment

About the Author

Sarah M. Broom is a writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Oxford American, and O, The Oprah Magazine among others. A native New Orleanian, she received her Masters in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. She was awarded a Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2016 and was a finalist for the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction in 2011. She has also been awarded fellowships at Djerassi Resident Artists Program and The MacDowell Colony. She lives in New York state.