Mon December 5, 2011  In 'Salvage The Bones,' Family's Story Of
Survival    Sometimes, the stories of life's biggest triumphs
and tragedies are best told, not in the headlines or in a cable
news crawl, but in literature. In her novel, "Salvage the
Bones," Jesmyn Ward tells the story of how one family on the
Mississippi Gulf Coast endured Hurricane Katrina.  But it also
tells the story of what they were enduring before the storm.
Extreme poverty, sexual abuse, routine violence and survival.
It's all seen through the eyes of the 15 year old narrator named
Esch. "Salvage the Bones" recently won the National Book Award
for fiction and Jesmyn Ward joins us now.  Welcome, and
congratulations on this really significant honor.  JESMYN WARD:
Thank you very much.  MARTIN: What about the award? I'm told
that you were very surprised. You were so surprised that you
almost couldn't talk.  WARD: I was. You know, I just did not
think that I was going to win. I'm very hesitant to assume that
good things are going to come to m