About A Gathering Place by Vicki Salloum
When 81-year-old Blue Hamieh—a devout Lebanese Catholic—hears the voice of the Virgin Mary telling her to create a “gathering place” in New Orleans, she walks away from everything—her Mississippi home, her family’s pleas, and all common sense.
It’s 2009. Katrina’s wreckage still scars the Gulf Coast as well as the city of New Orleans. Blue spends her life savings on a collapsing building in one of the Big Easy’s most desolate neighborhoods, determined to turn it into a café that will unite three fractured communities. But crime, poverty, and underlying racial tensions close in fast. Thieves lurk in the shadows. Deep-rooted distrust threatens to divide rather than unite. And her own family—convinced she’s lost her mind—plots to take her back home by force.
As her memory begins to slip, Blue is running out of time. To finish what she believes is a divine mission, she’ll have to defy everyone who doubts her—and face down a city that may never be ready for her dream.
Vick Salloum’s gripping novel is a powerful story of faith, resilience, and the courage to rebuild when the world says it’s too late.
This is a story for all whose lives have been touched by natural disasters and devastating personal loss—and for all women who face ridicule in their quest to do what they believe is right.
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Author Bio:
Born in Gulfport, Mississippi, Vicki Salloum has lived in New Orleans for many years. She is the author of five novels: FAULKNER & FRIENDS was released in 2014 by Underground Voices of Los Angeles, California. A PRAYER TO SAINT JUDE was published in 2012 by Main Street Rag of Charlotte, North Carolina. CANDYLAND was released in January 2016 by Moonshine Cove Publishing of Abbeville, South Carolina. WAITING FOR YOU AT MIDNIGHT was published in 2018 by Moonshine Cove. And A GATHERING PLACE will be released on November 18, 2025 by Silent Clamor Press of Los Angeles, California. Her short fiction has been included in the anthologies When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple (Papier-Mache Press, 1987); Pass/Fail: 32 Stories About Teaching (Red Sky Books, 2001); Voices From the Couch (America House, 2001); and Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox (Xavier Review Press, 2006). She holds an MFA in creative writing from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.