Special to
L’Observateur

DESTREHAN — New Orleans author Laura Lane McNeal will speak at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the St. Charles Parish East Regional Library, 160 West Campus Drive in Destrehan.

After Hurricane Katrina, McNeal struggled for two years to rebuild her home and life. The experience inspired her to write her debut novel Dollbaby, about the New Orleans that was and that never would be again.

The novel brings the Civil Rights era to life through the eyes of Ibby, a girl learning to understand race for the first time after being sent to New Orleans to live with her estranged grandmother Fannie.

It is filled with family secrets, New Orleans details and colorful characters — including Fannie’s black cook Queenie and her daughter, Dollbaby, who take it upon themselves to initiate Ibby into the ways of the South.

Copies of Dollbaby will be available for sale and signing after the presentation. For more information, call 985-764-2366.

The author talk is being held in conjunction with the Friends of the St. Charles Library meeting.