Lives of the Saints

“The virtues and morals of this Southern hothouse are as lucid as those of Jane Austen’s or George Eliot’s provincial outposts.“—Krithika Varagur, The Paris Review“A lovely nutty book about a lovely nutty girl … Hilarious, haunting, poignant.” ―Walker Percy“Spikily comic … This is how Blanche DuBois talked before the lampshade was torn away and life became lit with a naked bulb.“―James Wolcott, New York Review of Books“Think of Lives of the Saints as a long poem―a hysterically funny poem that is also beautifully written … Words are slung about recklessly, piled in staggering heaps, and what emerges from them is an almost hypnotic portrait of unforgettable people in a strange and magnificent city … Warming and endearing, brilliant.” ―Anne Tyler, The New Republic“Nancy Lemann has taken the South away from the Sun Belters and returned it to a clutch of New Orleans natives who know how to give decadence a good name … If the Crescent City should find itself in the grip of a population explosion, they can blame Nancy Lemann for making her readers want to move there. I want to have a drink at that Lafayette Hotel.” ―Florence King, Los Angeles Times Book Review“A modern Fitzgerald is launched … Lemann’s style can manage succinctness, wit, and pathos all in the same sentence.” ―Cleveland Plain Dealer“Striking … richly rewarding … Reminiscent of the works of Eudora Welty and the late Tennessee Williams.” ―Booklist“Brilliant … Party scenes worthy of Evelyn Waugh … and a very funny portrait of a people and place that haven’t changed much since the Civil War.” ―Kirkus Reviews“A tremendous first novel … with the mysterious subtlety of great writing.” ―Vogue“The author’s not inconsiderable feat is the creation of a world that is simultaneously wry, absurd and moving … A formidable debut performance from a novelist of exceptional gifts.” ―Boston Globe“Witty, memorable, and original … Louise’s tale of decency and self-destruction is poignant, serious, subtle. Lives of the Saints, in its flow of observations and feelings, is a superb portrait of a people whose day is not yet done.” ―Vanity Fair

Nancy Lemann was born in New Orleans and is the author of six books, including The Ritz of the Bayou (republished in 2026 by Hub City Press), Malaise, and, most recently, The Oyster Diaries (published in 2026 by New York Review Books).

Geoff Dyer is the author of many books. For NYRB Classics he has contributed a foreword to Pages from the Goncourt Journals and has edited and introduced a selection of D.H. Lawrence’s essays, The Bad Side of Books.