Pearce Oysters

A family of Louisiana oyster farmers deals with the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in Takacs’s intense debut. Jordan Pearce, 34, works the oyster leases he inherited from his late father five years earlier. He sends paychecks to his younger brother, Benny, who co-owns the business but refuses to work on the boats and rarely visits, preferring to pose as a starving anarchist in New Orleans. When the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon explodes and oil pours into the Gulf of Mexico, the company that contracted the rig hatches a plan to use toxic dispersants for the cleanup. Jordan pleads for Benny to return and help harvest the oysters while they still can. Benny, freshly dumped by his girlfriend after cheating on her, slinks home. As uncertainty about the future and threats to their health mount, Jordan starts dating a Native American bartender, his mother develops a worsening addiction to Xanax, and Benny, who is bisexual, begins sleeping with a Salvadoran day laborer. Though the supporting characters feel underdeveloped, Takacs captures the emotional toll of the disaster on the Pearces. It’s a devastating portait of the human cost of ecological destruction. Agent: Maria Whelan, InkWell Management. (June)