I didn’t want to race through THE MARAUDERS. I preferred to linger over and suck up each sentence, many (if not all) of which are shot through with subtle nuances that never get in the way of the multiple intersecting stories that comprise this exquisite first novel by Tom Cooper. Though he has been critically acclaimed as an author of short fiction, Cooper demonstrates here an easy comfort with longer work, which straddles the line between the format with which he is more familiar and extended storytelling. The result is unforgettable, a tragicomic equivalent of THE GRAPES OF WRATH for the 21st century.

THE MARAUDERS is a beautifully written dark tale --- make that tales, actually --- set primarily in the Barataria Bay area of Louisiana, 40 miles and a world away from New Orleans, its better known and more popular sibling. Cooper has created the semi-fictitious town of Jeannette (not to be confused with the real-world Jeanerette, a couple of hundred miles to its west), which is reeling in the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The town and its inhabitants are dependent on the seafood harvest that has been the reason for its existence for decades; the oil spill has all but wiped out the shrimp and oyster supply, at least for the short term.

"...a tragicomic equivalent of THE GRAPES OF WRATH for the 21st century.... THE MARAUDERS is one of those rare books that draws you into the cracks and crevices of its reality so deeply that your own world seems imaginary and secondary for a few hours."

An air of desperation accordingly hangs over each vignette set forth in the book, the narrative of which alternates among a cast of characters whose way of life is in jeopardy for various reasons, but who know nothing else in terms of making a living. However, for all of their commonality of background, they are markedly different at their soul. Those differences become more starkly demonstrated as their paths slowly but inexorably intersect, no matter how briefly.

Gus Lindquist is perhaps the most tragically comical of all. Lindquist, who lost an arm in a boating accident, is addicted to painkillers that he stores in a very unique dispenser as he alternates his time between making a living --- a task that is becoming increasingly difficult --- and swamping with a metal detector in hopes of locating the lost treasure of Jean Lafitte. His quest has cost him his marriage and his sanity, among other things, but the worst may be yet to come as he crosses bayou ley lines with the notorious Toup twins, Reginald and Victor. The Toups are known throughout southern Louisiana in equal measure for their high-grade marijuana and violent business dealings. When Lindquist’s meandering treasure hunt brings him into the vicinity of the Toups’ island pot farm, the paranoid brothers are convinced that he is after their stash and take appropriate action, a path that ironically brings Lindquist closer to them.

Lindquist accidentally drags a young innocent into the mix in the form of Wes Trench, a Cajun teenager who lost his mother during the Katrina floods and has been estranged, to varying degrees, from his father ever since. When an initially unknowing Trench hires on to Lindquist’s boat, Trench’s sad fate seems all but assured in a place where nothing appears certain but failure. Then there is Brady Grimes, an expatriate of the area who is back in the birthplace that he loathes more than anywhere else on earth, working as a stalking horse for an oil company eager to secure a quick settlement from as many of the afflicted as possible. Watch Grimes: arguably a minor character, he is a pivotal one, who in many ways draws the principals together as each and all meet an end game, tragic or otherwise.

THE MARAUDERS is one of those rare books that draws you into the cracks and crevices of its reality so deeply that your own world seems imaginary and secondary for a few hours. After reading it, you will not be able to eat seafood without thinking about what it took to get it to your plate or the chain of individuals who got it there. This is a story about people who, for many, are invisible at worst and a vague caricature at best. As Cooper demonstrates here, they are so much more.