"A rich gumbo of incest and longing that simmers with tension." -- Playboy "Gripping. An unforgettable look at the effects of generations of bad blood between two families." -- Booklist (starred review) "A masterful tale of deadly rivalries." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune "Biguenet's calm, lucid prose is consistently entrancing." -- New York Times Book Review "Biguenet explores with startling honesty the virtues and flaws that reveal themselves when we encounter extraordinary situations." -- Yale Review of Books "An astonishing, occasionally daunting imagination." -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune "An outstanding first novel.

full of mollusks, menace, and murder." -- Esquire "A thrilling read filled with a complex and unpredictable plot." -- Daily Mississippian "[Oyster] unfolds like a Rube Goldberg blueprint, . whose complicated network . entwines the lives of two families." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Truths. as universal as any Euripides might have contemplated." -- Washington Post "Suspenseful and intriguing, with a sultry atmosphere and seething passions.

" -- USA Today "This remarkable first novel by Biguenet . [is] captivating from start to finish." -- Library Journal "Biguenet.catches the scents and sounds of the bayou, and his characters bristle with a dark intensity." -- New York Times.