Seraphim - Paperback

by Joshua Perry (Author)

"Seraphim is a thrilling page-turner, as well as a deeply humane investigation into the many forms of justice. It will make you look at the world differently---as much as a book could hope to do." - Jonathan Safran Foer, author, Everything is Illuminated

From a former New Orleans public defender comes a gritty and thrilling interrogation of crime, violence, and the limits of justice in the chaotic times after Hurricane Katrina...

A 16-year-old confesses to the murder of a local celebrity--a hero of New Orleans's shaky post-storm recovery... The boy's father, doing life in prison on the installment plan for a series of minor offenses, will do anything to save him...

Enter Ben Alder, a carpetbagging attorney (and former rabbinical seminary student) who has drifted down to New Orleans. He winds up defending them both.

Ben and his partner, Boris, are public defenders obsessed with redeeming their case history of failures, and willing to do anything to protect their clients. As Ben tries to disrupt a corrupt and racist criminal justice system that believes an inexplicable crime has been solved, he confronts his own legacy of loss and faith. And as the novel hurtles towards its tragic, redemptive conclusion, Ben finds himself an onlooker and a perpetrator where he thought he was the hero.

A riveting and propulsive story about loyalty and grief, Seraphim is also an unflinching cross-examination of a broken legal system; a heartbreaking portrait of a beautiful, lost city, filled with children who kill and are killed; and a discomforting reflection on privilege, prejudice, and power.

Author Biography

Joshua Perry was a public defender in New Orleans for ten years, serving as head of the city's youth public defender and as General Counsel to the Orleans Public Defenders. Since then, his civil rights cases have included representing immigrant children separated from their parents at the Mexican border and suing the FDA to preserve access to abortion medication. As the State of Connecticut's Solicitor General, he leads a team representing the state in complex cases in federal and state appellate courts. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife and three daughters.