When the levee breaks

With 27 books and two Edgar awards under his literary belt, James Lee Burke is no rookie in American literature. For readers unfamiliar with his work, or perhaps only familiar with his detective stories featuring Dave Robicheaux, Jesus Out to Sea will come as an interesting revelation. The 11 short stories published over a decade and brought together in this book manage to portray quite well the author's depth and versatility as a writer.

For the most part, the stories span the American Gulf Coast and several decades, up to the post-Hurricane Katrina era; but the majority of these stories throw us back in the rural Gulf states of Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, somewhere in the 1940s. Having lived around the Gulf Coast for most of his 70 years and written about it for the last half-century, Mr Burke has made this traditional American territory his own.

The stories in this collection are based on the experience of growing up and living on the southern rim of the United States. In Mr Burke's fiction, the devastated Gulf Coast becomes a versatile backdrop against which he can explore his most persistent themes: the pitting of the powerless against the powerful and the search for redemption. Mr Burke presents us with stories dealing with the scope of humanity, from love, sex and heartache to need, compassion, friendship, perseverance and death.

At first glance, Jesus Out to Sea might seem to focus solely on the local culture of the southern states, and readers might be compelled to think that these tragedies are perhaps the result of localised misery.

But Mr Burke subtly uncovers universal themes and understanding - indeed, Louisiana becomes a microcosm of the world. In an interview, Mr Burke once stated that a novelist should "look at society from the bottom up - that's the only way we ever understand what's going on in society at any given time". This collection clearly shows that Mr Burke uses the narrative as a means of posing questions and answering them at the same time.

Mr Burke elegantly marries his flair for creating complex, believable character portraits and absorbing storytelling with a lyrical and quasi-poetic writing style. Still, deep down he is a relentlessly realistic writer: "But even in the middle of an Indian summer's day, when the sugarcane is beaten with purple and gold light in the fields, [...] I have to mourn just a moment for those people of years ago who lived lives they did not choose, who carried burdens that were not their own."

Though these hardships have a distinctly Southern tang, no one can deny that each one of us, regardless of race, gender or nationality, has at one point felt the heartache, confusion and hope that the characters in Jesus Out to Sea experience and embody.

The author acknowledges that these hardships and misfortunes are thrust upon people's lives either by misfortune or, just as often, mismanagement: "These events almost always have humble origins. That moment where somebody just throws a match down [...] and the fuse is already there." Each of the characters, from alcoholic fathers, abused mothers, disappointed lovers, lonely widows and bullied children to traumatised war veterans, racists and grouchy old men, has a story to tell. Nevertheless, for all characters Mr Burke demonstrates that while there are no easy answers to life's questions, there can still be hope amid adversity.

With a book brimming with good short stories, there is always a temptation to rush from one to the next. But this collection is to be read and savoured slowly. Mr Burke manages to deliver stories that are both meticulously told and utterly honest, and it is the way he fleshes out each and every one of his characters, who are forced to find their humanity amid suffering and hardship, that ultimately makes this book memorable and a worthwhile read.

• Mr Mallia is a science graduate currently reading for Doctor of Medicine & Surgery at the University of Malta. Although he has been taught that laughter is the best medicine, he still thinks that a good book is a much better drug.

• A review copy of this title was supplied by Allied Retail & Commercial Co. Ltd.