In the Fall
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This "richly detailed and expertly plotted" historical epic chronicles the dark secrets and forbidden loves of an American family across three generations (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
In the twilight of the Civil War, a Union soldier meets a runaway slave and returns with her to his family homestead in Vermont, launching the story of a bold, interracial union and its myriad consequences. This passionate couple and their descendants will grapple with the ongoing devastations of the war, racism, and a haunting family legacy that lies dormant until a grandson is driven to discover the secret of his ancestors.
Spanning the post–Civil War era to the edge of the Great Depression, In the Fall is an expansive saga of a rapidly evolving America—from life on a farm, through the final years of Prohibition and bootlegging in the resort towns of New Hampshire, to the advent of modern times. "Remarkable for its grace, felicity and precision," Jeffrey Lent's debut novel is an utterly compelling vision of America, and an unforgettable portrait of an American family (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
"Jeffrey Lent has quietly created some of the finest novels of our new century." —Ron Rash
"Jeffrey Lent builds characters and their world like a painter layering his canvas, telling his story but substantiating it with color and light." —Tim Pears
"Sentence by sentence . . . Lent's language draws you in like a clear stream in summer." —Tim Gautreaux
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The immediacy of the past, the tensions of race, the crushing weight of guilt and the searing intensity of forbidden love drive Lent's expansive, richly detailed and expertly plotted debut novel. Spanning three generations, from the end of the Civil War through Prohibition, the story begins with an interracial marriage between a Vermont soldier and a runaway slave girl. Nineteen-year-old Norman Pelham is wounded and dying in the woods of Virginia near the end of the war when 16-year-old Leah finds and saves him. She has fled Sweetboro, N.C., after killing her owner's son--her own half brother--when he tried to rape her. Norman and Leah know better than to allow their initial attraction to flower into love, but they cannot ignore their passion, and they marry on the road to Vermont. In brisk, confident detail, Lent recreates many historical scenes--soldiers returning wearily home, cider-pressing time in Vermont, the ins and outs of bootlegging and whiskey-running in the resort mountains of New Hampshire in the '20s. The male characters--Norman, his son and youngest child, Jamie, and Jamie's son, Foster--provide the narrative thread for the novel; but it is Leah whose story thematically unites the lives of husband, son, and grandson. Twenty-five years after her flight, Leah finds that she cannot continue to put the past behind her and must go back to Sweetboro. What she discovers there, and never reveals to her husband or to either of her grown daughters, is a mystery until her grandson Foster finally makes his own trip south. Lent's prose is sometimes lyrical to a fault, but otherwise remarkable for its grace, felicity and precision. Engrossing, wonderfully written, with a full gallery of believable and sympathetic characters, this first novel introduces an ambitious and talented writer.
