Larry Gray's Bayou Coeur is the thing that readers hunger for, storytelling that lights up the mind like a movie screen and gives a strong sense of place woven from authentic detail--writing that flows like the currents of the heart. --Tim Gautreaux, author of The Clearing, Next Step in the Dance, The Missing, Welding with Children Larry Gray is a master storyteller. He knows his people, their histories and their voices. This collection is simply unforgettable. --Bev Marshall, author of Right as Rain and Walking through Shadows I spent all of two days in New Orleans once--in a hotel--at a conference. So really, I've never experienced Louisiana other than through the lyrical language and gentle storytelling of Larry Gray. As he maps the tour, it's a fascinating, wistful and flavorful journey not to be missed. --Neal Radice, artistic director of Alleyway Theatre, Buffalo, NY Forget Duck Dynasty and True Detective.

Read Bayou Coeur and enter a world as different from the homogeneity of American life as 'touff'e is different from Campbell's soup. Gray leads us through this unique culture like a skilled cajun accordionist laying down his chords and pursuing a melodic line that evokes nostalgia and mystery and resolves into surprising harmonies. --Bill Dowie, author of critical biographies of Peter Matthiessen and James Salter in the Twayne U.S. Authors Series In Larry Gray's title story, "Bayou Coeur," the midwesterner narrator's steady excavation of layers of cajun landscape and culture, as he revisits his earlier life brings us to a disclosure of his heart's past indulgence and recovery from its scars. Read this superb story and descend, well guided, into a nuanced, timeless and uplifting sense of the mysteries of place, human behavior and love. Gray's sure touch makes us want to read much more of his work. --Norbert Krapf, former Poet Laureate of Indiana.