"Like a mournful fairytale, Jennifer Shaw’s beautifully staged tableaux are alternately sweet and menacing, filled with emotion but never spilling over into sentimentality. The poetic marriage of words and photos makes Hurricane Story a children’s book for grown-ups.” —Josh Neufeld, creator of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

"Even if you think you''ve seen it all where Katrina''s concerned, trust me, you''re going to love Shaw''s marvelous memoir."—The Times-Picayune

"This is the kind of book that reminds you that books can be beautiful objects." —The Los Angeles Times

"Hurricane Story is a tabletop, toy box Odyssey. With simple objects, trenchant statements, and exquisite camera vision, Shaw relates an epic tale of displacement, creation and discovery." — George Slade, curator, Photographic Resource Center, Boston

"An engaging variation on a near mythic theme."—Gambit Weekly


Hurricane Story is a spellbinding odyssey of exile, birth and return told in forty-six photographs and simple, understated prose. This first-person narrative told through dreamlike images of toys and dolls chronicles one couple’s evacuation from New Orleans ahead of the broken levees, the birth of their first child on the day that Katrina made landfall, and their eventual return to the city as a family. Shaw’s photographs, at turns humorous and haunting, contrast deftly with the prose.

This ebook edition includes an introduction by Rob Walker, author of Letters From New Orleans and former “Consumed” columnist for The New York Times Magazine; an afterword by Steven Maklansky, who was assistant director for art and curator of photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art when Katrina made landfall; and a radio interview of the author by Susan Larson on WWNO''s The Reading Life.

"Like a mournful fairytale, Jennifer Shaw’s beautifully staged tableaux are alternately sweet and menacing, filled with emotion but never spilling over into sentimentality. The poetic marriage of words and photos makes Hurricane Story a children’s book for grown-ups.” —Josh Neufeld, creator of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

"Even if you think you''ve seen it all where Katrina''s concerned, trust me, you''re going to love Shaw''s marvelous memoir."—The Times-Picayune

"This is the kind of book that reminds you that books can be beautiful objects." —The Los Angeles Times

"Hurricane Story is a tabletop, toy box Odyssey. With simple objects, trenchant statements, and exquisite camera vision, Shaw relates an epic tale of displacement, creation and discovery." — George Slade, curator, Photographic Resource Center, Boston

"An engaging variation on a near mythic theme."—Gambit Weekly


Hurricane Story is a spellbinding odyssey of exile, birth and return told in forty-six photographs and simple, understated prose. This first-person narrative told through dreamlike images of toys and dolls chronicles one couple’s evacuation from New Orleans ahead of the broken levees, the birth of their first child on the day that Katrina made landfall, and their eventual return to the city as a family. Shaw’s photographs, at turns humorous and haunting, contrast deftly with the prose.

This ebook edition includes an introduction by Rob Walker, author of Letters From New Orleans and former “Consumed” columnist for The New York Times Magazine; an afterword by Steven Maklansky, who was assistant director for art and curator of photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art when Katrina made landfall; and a radio interview of the author by Susan Larson on WWNO''s The Reading Life.