A House That Moves Slowly

When public defender Mara LeBlanc inherits her grandmother's raised house, she expects title trouble, flood damage, and a family argument. She does not expect to find the house six blocks away, a stranger asleep in its kitchen, and a city notice waiting on the porch. Every night, the house moves one block through a near-future New Orleans shaped by water, buyouts, and redevelopment plans. Mara tries to make the impossible legible through permits and filings, but each stop draws in people pushed aside by the same policies her family once survived. With her organizer cousin, a wary building inspector, and the first woman the house sheltered, Mara must learn what the moving house is asking of them. As the city prepares to seize the structure in the name of safety, Mara faces a choice between protecting an inheritance and helping build a refuge no single owner can control. A grounded speculative novel about family, displacement, and the difficult work of making room.