A Sitting in St. James
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award!
7 starred reviews! "Monumental." —Booklist (starred review) * "A marathon masterpiece."—Kirkus (starred review) * "Necessary."—SLJ (starred review) * "Shocking and dramatic."—Shelf Awareness (starred review) * "Mesmerizing, confounding and vividly rendered."—Book Page (starred review) * "Williams-Garcia’s storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic."—Horn Book (starred review)
This astonishing family saga from three-time National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human—and essential YA historical fiction for both teens and adults grappling with the long history of American racism.
1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait.
While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations—from the big house to out in the fields—of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved, come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts in this powerful story of the antebellum South.
Rita Williams-Garcia is one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has been honored with the Children's Literature Lecture Award from the American Library Association.
This unforgettable portrait of antebellum life is built on the secrets of generations:
Multigenerational Secrets: As Madame Sylvie sits for her portrait, the Guilbert family’s carefully constructed facade begins to crumble, exposing horrors buried for decades.LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction: Amid the rising tension, a West Point cadet and heir to the plantation harbors a forbidden love for his closest friend, risking everything for stolen moments of freedom.The Brutality of Slavery: Experience the interwoven lives of the enslaved people bound to the Guilbert plantation, whose stories of resilience and suffering form the true foundation of the estate.A Nation on the Brink: Set in 1860 Louisiana, this epic masterwork captures a society moments away from tearing itself apart, grappling with a legacy of racism that continues to echo today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The history of a white plantation-owning family dominates this substantial portrait of antebellum slavery by Newbery Honoree Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer). Forced to marry a middle-aged planter or risk death at the French Revolution's start, Madame Sylvie Bernardin de Maret Dacier Guilbert is now the 80-year-old mistress of a failing plantation. Presiding over Le Petit Cottage in Louisiana's St. James Parish, Madame Sylvie insists upon sitting for a painting—"an obligation to the legacy of the family"—despite its cost. Aiming to keep the estate afloat while catering to his mother's traditions, her syphilitic son connives to marry off his children. Twined with the Guilbert family's past are the histories of the enslaved people they exploit in the 1860s, including 16-year-old multilingual Thisbe, personal servant to Madame Sylvie. This provoking history unsparingly centers the brutalization of its Black characters, including manifold instances of beatings, sexual assault, and slurs. If the telling dramatizes harmful philosophies and queer pain, it also offers an unvarnished look at a slowly toppling power structure obsessed with artifice and tradition, hinting through a notably long-view lens that new generations may, slowly and not without suffering, move away from antiquated ideology. Ages 16–up. ■
