Review: 'The Levee,' by William Kent Krueger

Years ago, while still in his 20s, William Kent Krueger read William Faulkner's novella "Old Man" and was captivated by the tale of a convict sent out in a small boat to rescue a pregnant woman during a flood. Inspired, he wrote his own story, which he called "The Levee." It wasn't quite right, and he put it away.

In his mid-40s, he pulled out the story and reworked it, but put it away again; it still wasn't right.

And then during the COVID-19 lockdown — a time that Krueger calls the most productive of his life — he took it out one more time. "Rather than merely rework it, I completely rethought the story," he said in a coda to "The Levee," just released by Simon & Schuster as an audiobook original.

The story is set in 1927, during a flood of "Biblical proportions." The Mississippi River south of Memphis swelled to 80 miles across, and hundreds of people were trapped or died. Three inmates are released from prison to help with rescues, and they set out with a fourth man who supervises them. They end up at Ballymore, a stately house protected by a levee that may or may not be in danger of giving way and inhabited by a family torn about leaving.

The gripping tale is narrated by J.D. Jackson; in his slow drawl, the story dramatically builds like flood waters rising.

Laurie Hertzel is the senior editor for books at the Star Tribune.

The Levee

By: William Kent Krueger, read by J.D. Jackson.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Originals, 3 hours 39 minutes, $19.99.