The year is 2004. As the steamy New Orleans heat rises, Amanda Boyden’s Babylon Rolling weaves through the lives of those who “chose to live in the big lasso of river.”

It is an evocative tale, detailing the lives of the diverse inhabitants of Orchid Street, in the year sandwiched between the hurricane that passed the city by (Ivan) and the one that didn’t (Katrina). The book gives readers a sense of all the tensions that collided in this legendary city before the levees broke. Babylon Rolling is a thoroughly poignant commentary on human nature, and it is astounding that these characters live only within the confines of these pages.

There’s nasty, scheming Philomena Beauregard de Bruges, a white upper-class lady whose daily entertainment includes spying on her neighbours from behind her ginger bushes. She meticulously details their comings and goings, all the while largely ignoring her husband Joe. Next door, there’s Ed Flank, his wife Ariel May and their appropriately named children Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald, a white middle-class family recently transplanted to the Big Easy from Minneapolis.

Then there’s the Harris clan — a large black family that includes 15-year-old son Fearius. He is fresh out of juvie and eager to prove himself as a drug dealer, while his older brother Muzzle — a more prominent dealer — is out of commission. There’s also Cerise and Roy Brown, an elderly well-to-do black couple, and the Guptas, the new East Indian neighbours, who are the source of much gossip and speculation. We also meet the regulars at the Tokyo Rose — the neighbourhood pub with a long-standing tradition of the “free naked drink” at Mardi Gras, and the staff at La Belle Nouvelle, a seedy New Orleans hotel that Ariel May is charged with revitalizing as the new general manager.

As Hurricane Ivan hurtles toward the city, the neighbours are pulled together by a random accident. As other calamities loom ahead, their bonds tighten and their lives are pulled together in ways they never thought possible. This powerful novel takes us through the details of these characters’ lives, as they are brought together by unlikely events — their races and cultures clashing, intersecting and sometimes merging.

Boyden has an uncanny ability to inhabit each of the characters, their voices speaking distinctly from the page. From the choppy gangsta swagger of Fearius and his buddies, to Philomenia’s prim and proper musings, to Ed Flank’s frustrations as an eco-conscious, Buddhist househusband, the author’s use of dialogue is nearly as engrossing as the sultry, surprising plot itself. Complete with drug dealers, an extramarital affair or two, and natural disasters galore, there’s seldom a quiet moment on Orchid Street.