The upcoming Super Bowl has brought lots of talk about New Orleans. For an unforgettable account of the devastating hurricane of 2005, read Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, based on the real experience of one man who stayed behind when Katrina hit. Here’s an excerpt:—PM

“Tuesday August 10

“Zeitoun opened his eyes again. He was home, in his daughter Nademah’s room, under the covers, looking through the window at a dirty white sky. The sound continued, something like running water. But there was no rain, no leaks. He thought a pipe might have broken, but that couldn’t be it; the sound wasn’t right. This was more like a river, the movement of great volumes of water.

“He sat up and looked down through the window that faced the backyard. He saw water, a wide sea of it. It was coming from the north. It flowed into the yard, under the house, rising quickly.

“He couldn’t make sense of it. The day before, the water had receded, as he had expected it to, but now it had returned, far stronger. And this water was different from the murky rainwater of the day before. This water was green and clear. This was lake water.

“At that moment, Zeitoun knew that the levees has been overtopped or compromised. There could be no doubt. The city would soon be underwater. … He knew the recovery would take months or years. He knew the flood had come.”