New Orleans isn’t just a place you visit; it’s a place you can read about. So many stories unfold on its streets, from the Garden District mansions to the neon glow of Bourbon Street, and out into the surrounding bayous.
If you love getting lost in a book that truly captures the spirit of a city, here are some novels (and a couple of other great reads) set right in New Orleans. Each one offers a different window into this unique place.
You have to meet Ignatius J. Reilly. He’s a highly educated but unemployable man who lives with his mother in 1960s New Orleans. Ignatius has strong opinions about theology, geometry, and the lack of taste in the modern world. He ventures out into the city in his hunting cap.
His reluctant journeys through different parts of New Orleans, from Levy Pants Company to the French Quarter, bring him into contact with characters like patrolman Mancuso and the resourceful Burma Jones. The dialogue and situations are truly one-of-a-kind.
This book won the Pulitzer Prize.
This story introduces Edna Pontellier. She lives in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century and starts to feel confined by her life as a wife and mother. During a summer trip to Grand Isle, a coastal resort near New Orleans, Edna experiences a personal transformation.
Her interactions there, particularly with the charming Robert Lebrun, awaken desires for independence. She returns to the city and continues to challenge the expectations placed upon women of her time.
The descriptions capture both the Creole society of New Orleans and the atmosphere of the Gulf Coast.
Imagine sitting down in a dimly lit room in New Orleans to hear a vampire tell his life story. Louis de Pointe du Lac recounts over 200 years of immortality to a young reporter.
His tale begins in late 18th-century Louisiana, where he was made a vampire by the charismatic Lestat de Lioncourt. Their intense relationship, the addition of the child vampire Claudia, and their travels through Old World Europe fill the narrative.
The story uses New Orleans as its starting point and a recurring touchstone.
Meet Binx Bolling, a young stockbroker in post-Korean War New Orleans. He lives in the suburb of Gentilly and doesn’t find much connection in his everyday routines or relationships. Movies offer him a kind of solace; he analyzes film stars and scenes with intense focus.
The week before Mardi Gras, Binx finds his usual detachment challenged by his interactions with his troubled cousin, Kate Cutrer. They wander through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The book looks closely at Binx’s search for meaning beyond the ordinary.
This historical novel takes place in New Orleans before the Civil War. It focuses on the lives of the gens de couleur libres, or free people of color. The story centers on Marcel Ste. Marie.
He is a young man educated in music and letters, who lives within this complex society where status depends heavily on parentage and skin tone.
When Marcel discovers hidden truths about his family’s heritage, specifically concerning his white father, his understanding of his own identity and future shifts dramatically. The book explores the unique social structure and culture of antebellum New Orleans.
A Tulane law student, Darby Shaw, writes a speculative legal brief about the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. Her theory turns out to be dangerously accurate, and soon Darby is running for her life through New Orleans and beyond.
She eventually contacts an investigative reporter, Gray Grantham of the Washington Herald. Together, they try to stay alive long enough to uncover the conspiracy outlined in Darby’s brief. Expect suspenseful scenes set against recognizable New Orleans locations.
Detective Dave Robicheaux works in Iberia Parish, but this story throws him into the devastation of New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. The city is flooded and chaotic.
Robicheaux arrives to help a friend and soon investigates the looting-related deaths of two young black men. His search for answers leads him through the ravaged neighborhoods and the still-standing parts of the French Quarter.
He encounters dangerous figures who exploit the disaster. Robicheaux also battles his own personal demons against this backdrop of destruction and resilience.
This novel is set in the Garden District of New Orleans. Joan Mitchell, the youngest of five daughters, returns to her family’s large house on Coliseum Street after a difficult experience away from home.
Back in the familiar yet stifling environment, she grapples with her relationships with her mother and sisters. She also uncovers unsettling details about her family’s past, particularly concerning her beautiful but distant mother.
The atmosphere of the Garden District permeates the story.
Set in New Orleans shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, this novel examines the tensions within the city’s Creole society. The story centers on the large and influential Grandissime family.
It contrasts their aristocratic white Creole members with their mixed-race relatives, known as the partie de couleur. A central character is Honoré Grandissime, the family head, who tries to navigate the changing social landscape.
Another key figure is Joseph Frowenfeld, an American newcomer who observes the family’s feuds and secrets. The book addresses issues of race, class, and cultural clashes in early 19th-century New Orleans.
This book leaps across time and continents, but New Orleans serves as a key location. Part of the story follows Priscilla, a waitress in New Orleans who experiments with perfume-making.
Another thread involves Alobar, a king from ancient Bohemia who seeks immortality, and Kudra, an Indian woman he meets. Their centuries-long quest connects to characters in contemporary Seattle, Paris, and New Orleans.
Expect unusual characters, philosophical ideas mixed with humor, and a plot that involves beets, immortality, and the power of scent.
This is the start of a series about the Mayfair family, a dynasty of powerful witches whose influence stretches through New Orleans history. Their family home is a grand mansion in the Garden District.
The narrative introduces Dr. Rowan Mayfair, a neurosurgeon in San Francisco, who discovers she is the heir to the Mayfair legacy.
As she returns to New Orleans, she learns about her family’s long history, their immense power, and a mysterious, seductive entity named Lasher that has been connected to the Mayfair women for generations.
The Talamasca, a secret scholarly organization that observes paranormal phenomena, also features prominently.
Declan Fitzgerald, a lawyer from Boston, impulsively buys Manet Hall, a neglected plantation house near New Orleans. He hopes to restore it. Soon after moving in, he begins to experience unsettling visions connected to the house’s tragic past.
Local legends tell of century-old secrets involving love, betrayal, and murder within the Manet family. Declan meets Lena Simone, a local woman whose family history is deeply intertwined with the old house.
Together they explore the mysteries of Manet Hall, and uncover truths buried for generations.
This book introduces Dave Robicheaux, who starts as a homicide detective in New Orleans. He’s a Vietnam veteran haunted by his past and struggling with alcoholism.
While investigating the murder of a young prostitute, Robicheaux stumbles upon connections to arms smuggling involving Nicaraguan Contras and powerful figures in the city. His investigation puts him at odds with the police department and dangerous criminals.
The descriptions paint a picture of New Orleans with its heat, humidity, and underlying currents of violence and corruption.
Meet Skip Langdon, a debutante turned rookie police officer in New Orleans. She’s tall, self-conscious, and trying to prove herself in the NOPD. Her first major case begins during Mardi Gras when Rex, the King of Carnival, is murdered mid-parade.
Skip, whose social connections give her insight into the victim’s world, navigates the traditions and secrets of the city’s elite society to find the killer.
The story offers glimpses into the unique social customs and atmosphere of New Orleans, particularly during Carnival season.
This is a famous play, not a novel, but its portrayal of New Orleans is unforgettable. It takes place in a cramped apartment in the French Quarter.
Blanche DuBois, a fragile and faded Southern belle, arrives unexpectedly to stay with her sister Stella and Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche’s refined pretensions clash violently with Stanley’s raw, animalistic nature.
The heat, noise, and close quarters of the setting intensify the emotional conflicts. Blanche’s famous line, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” reflects her vulnerability in this environment.
This non-fiction book tells the true story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American painting contractor in New Orleans, during and after Hurricane Katrina. While his family evacuated, Zeitoun stayed behind to protect their home and business.
He paddled through the flooded city in a canoe, rescuing neighbors and distributing supplies. His acts of kindness took a shocking turn when he was arrested without explanation and subjected to imprisonment under inhumane conditions.
The book chronicles his ordeal and offers a ground-level view of the chaos and injustice following the storm.
The setting is New Orleans in the 1830s. Benjamin January is a free man of color, a surgeon trained in Paris, and a talented musician who plays piano for a living. When a wealthy white woman is murdered at a Quadroon Ball, suspicion falls on January’s friend.
To clear his friend’s name, January must navigate the complex social strata of antebellum New Orleans – from the parlors of the Creole elite to the coded world of voodoo practitioners. He uses his intelligence and knowledge of the city to uncover dangerous secrets.
Mambo Reina Dumond is a Vodou priestess whose spiritual home is the French Quarter. When a ritual altar is discovered near the body of a murdered man connected to her Vodou community, Reina feels compelled to investigate. The police suspect one of her fellow practitioners.
Reina uses her knowledge of Vodou traditions, her deep ties within the community, and her intuition to search for the truth. The story explores the practice of New Orleans Voudou and the vibrant life within the Quarter.
This novel follows two different families as they experience Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. SJ Williams is a Black carpenter from the Lower Ninth Ward; his family has deep roots in New Orleans.
Craig Donaldson is a white, middle-class journalist who moved to the city relatively recently. The storm forces both families to evacuate under harrowing conditions.
The story then tracks their struggles as refugees, their differing experiences with displacement and loss, and their eventual decisions about whether or how they can return to rebuild their lives in the changed city.