Out of the Easy

Out of the Easy is a 2013 novel by Ruta Sepetys. It is her second published novel.^[1] It features Josie Moraine, a young woman in the 1950s French Quarter of New Orleans who struggles to escape her family and become the author of her own destiny. The novel became a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times on February 15, 2013.^[2]

Sepetys has said that Out of the Easy was born from her discovery of the biography The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld and her interest in post-war America, which, contrary to her expectations, was full of "suffering and secrets."^[3] She also attributes her interest in New Orleans to a gift of vintage opera glasses, which still had the old owner's name engraved, enabling her to find out who the original owner was.^[4] As with all her books, Sepetys undertook several research trips, which lead her to discover news articles about "tourists who met an untimely end"; she later worked this into the novel.^[5]

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