Navel of the Moon is a coming-of-age tale centering on Vicenta “Vicky” Lumiere, a resident of the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans. By closely observing her neighbors and friends, often with a critical eye and a naïve interpretation, Vicky learns  that the world fails to fall into discrete categories of good and evil, and that any attempt to assert authority over chaos is ultimately impossible. The characters that structure Vicky's world are intriguing, beginning with her Mexican grandmother, Mimy, whose claim to be from the "navel of the moon" baffles Vicky. Over the course of one summer, the heroine's attempts to understand the illusive nature of friendship captures the sorrow, the happiness, and the ordinary of one's humanity.

MARY HELEN LAGASSE’s debut novel, The Fifth Sun (Curbstone, 2004), won the Miguel Mármol Prize, the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize, Independent Publisher Best Multicultural Fiction Award (2005), and was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award (2005). Her stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune and New Orleans Magazine. She lives in her native New Orleans.