The author and Louisiana native calls the the book “a way to honor what was once here before we let it wash away”
Credit: Kenny Lass; Little, Brown and Company
NEED TO KNOW
- PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover of M.O. Walsh’s novel L3K
- The book is set in the bestselling author’s native Louisiana, and centers on a battle over a group of oil rigs in the state
- “I had this strange vision of what Louisiana might one day have to do to survive,” Walsh says of the book’s origins
M.O. Walsh’s next novel is an incisive look at a potential problem.
L3K, out next year from Hachette Book Group imprint Little, Brown and Company, centers on two people caught up on opposite sides of an environmental battle in Louisiana. On one end is Ella Powell, a human relocation specialist working for the U.S. government, assigned to close a chain of abandoned oil rigs known as L3K.
Head Biologist Graham Flanagan leads the charge from the other side. The L3K crew is not one to give up their work — or the animals they’re tasked with protecting — so easily, leading Graham to head up an online resistance that puts Ella’s mission at risk.
Credit: Little, Brown and Company
Walsh, a Louisiana native who runs the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans, knew that he wanted to pay homage to his home state in the novel, for which PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover.
“I’ve been working on this novel, off and on, for more than half of my life. Even before Hurricane Katrina or the BP oil spill, I had this strange vision of what Louisiana might one day have to do to survive,” the bestselling author tells PEOPLE. “When we lose more than a football field of land every 100 minutes and the coast eventually disappears before our eyes, what will remain of this place that I love?”
Need your next page-turner? See which books our editors can’t put down with our People Who Read newsletter — plus get PEOPLE News.
“I could envision abandoned oil rigs and drilling platforms all alone out there on the ruined gulf easily enough, but I couldn’t bring myself to imagine a version of Louisiana without community and vitality, full of wildlife and big personalities,” he continues.
“So, the result of these two inevitabilities, climate collapse and perseverance, brought the L3K facility to life for me; a sprawling nature preserve scattered among retrofitted oil platforms. A way to honor what was once here before we let it wash away. Pelicans. Alligators. Nutria. The sounds of laughter and friendship. And so the novel begins when this place, the very last memory of home we may have, is threatened.”
Credit: Kenny Lass
Despite the high-stakes ecological conflict — publisher Little, Brown recommends it for readers of Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore and Lily Brooks-Dalton’s The Light Pirate — L3K remains the home-state tribute that Walsh set out to write. It’s also one that has led him to reflect.
“In my mind, this is mainly an adventure novel, full of what I think Louisiana is full of: celebration and hardship, promise and loss, romance and pain,” the author says. “I don’t know why it took me so long, a full 25 years, to finish the book. Maybe it’s because I didn’t want to leave it. Or maybe my heart just needed to grow a little bit more to do it justice.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Walsh is also the author of novels including My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize.
L3K will hit shelves on Feb. 2, 2027 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.
Read the full article here
