The East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s sixteenth annual One Book One Community (OBOC) parish-wide reading extravaganza brings its literary selection close to home this year, focusing on a captivating story of one couple's journey to live like their ancestors in the Atchafalaya Swamp. Sponsored by the public library, the initiative encourages the shared experience of reading and discussing the same book.
In the early 1970s, two idealistic young people—Gwen Carpenter Roland and Calvin Voisin—decided to leave civilization and re-create the vanished simple life of their great-grandparents in the heart of Louisiana's million-acre Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Towed deep into the sleepy waters of Bloody Bayou, it was their home for eight years. Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp traces the not-so-simple life they made together—days spent fishing, trading, making wine, growing food, and growing up. Gwen vividly recounts her voyage of discovery with immersive prose, holding the reader's attention rapt as she tells us how she got here, how it changed her, and why she left. An eloquent observer of both the natural world and the ways of human beings, she transports readers to an unfamiliar and exotic place.
From the buildings around us to the artifacts our ancestors leave behind, the places in which we live have important stories to tell. Part of the OBOC mission is to put on accompanying programs that correspond with the featured book’s core tenets and address the powerful issues that it raises. Within this year’s lineup patrons will find a hub of resources
The celebratory Kickoff Party will be on Saturday, March 5th at the Main Library, featuring live music from Lafayette-based musicians RJ & Kreole Smoove. For more information on One Book One Community and the full schedule of events at library branches across the parish, visit readonebook.org.
Sponsored by East Baton Rouge Parish Library
