The family is forced into the attic and eventually onto the roof as water begins to flood into their home. China prevails over Manny's cousin's dog after a vicious fight. Skeetah and Manny have an altercation at one of Randall's basketball games, and they agree to resolve it through a dog fight.

Esch finds out she is pregnant by Manny, a friend of the family's who is dating another girl. Skeetah has a close relationship with his dog China, who gives birth to a litter of puppies at the beginning of the novel. Their mother died while giving birth to Junior. The family consists of Daddy, his daughter Esch (the narrator), and his sons Randall, Skeetah, and Junior. The novel follows a working-class African-American family living in southern Mississippi in 2005. In an interview with the Paris Review, Ward said she drew inspiration from Medea and the works of William Faulkner. The novel was the 2011 recipient of the National Book Award for Fiction. Ward, who lived through Katrina, wrote the novel, after being very 'dissatisfied with the way Katrina had receded from public consciousness'. The novel explores the plight of a working-class African-American family in Mississippi as they prepare for Hurricane Katrina and follows them through the aftermath of the storm. Salvage the Bones is the second novel by American author Jesmyn Ward and published by Bloomsbury in 2011.

Salvage the bones setting