As a River
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Description
It's 1977. Bannen, Georgia, nestled amid pine forests, is rife with contrasts: natural beauty and racial tension, small-town charm and long-term poverty. An unsettling place for a Black man who fled it years ago and has since traveled the world.
But Greer Michaels has to come home, to care for his dying mother.
And that means he'll have to reckon with the devastating secret that drove him out in the first place.
Greer's story is intertwined with those of the people around him: His mother, Elizabeth, who once had a dazzling singing voice but fell silent years ago. Their neighbor Esse, who has turned to religion after her own traumatic past. Esse's teenaged daughter, Ceiley, an insatiable reader with a burning curiosity about life beyond Bannen's town limits.
Written in spare and lyrical prose, As a River moves back and forth across decades, evoking the mysterious play of memory as it touches upon shame and redemption, despair and connection. An exploration of family secrets rooted in the turbulent history of the segregated South, As a River is ultimately about our struggles to understand each other, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
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But Greer Michaels has to come home, to care for his dying mother.
And that means he'll have to reckon with the devastating secret that drove him out in the first place.
Greer's story is intertwined with those of the people around him: His mother, Elizabeth, who once had a dazzling singing voice but fell silent years ago. Their neighbor Esse, who has turned to religion after her own traumatic past. Esse's teenaged daughter, Ceiley, an insatiable reader with a burning curiosity about life beyond Bannen's town limits.
Written in spare and lyrical prose, As a River moves back and forth across decades, evoking the mysterious play of memory as it touches upon shame and redemption, despair and connection. An exploration of family secrets rooted in the turbulent history of the segregated South, As a River is ultimately about our struggles to understand each other, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
show more
Product details
- Paperback | 218 pages
- 140 x 216 x 13mm | 281g
- 03 Sep 2019
- Jaded Ibis Press, LLC
- English
- 1938841107
- 9781938841101
- 2,282,100
Review quote
"Insightful, observant, and poetic." -Foreword Reviews "Signals the arrival of a significant new voice in literary fiction. Shades of...Morrison's lyricism, Baldwin's social consciousness, and Adichie's ear for dialogue." -The Rupture "Dayson has put readers in touch with a brilliant perception into the human spirit." -North Carolina Literary Review "Expertly crafted plot, lyrical prose, and an ending that brings us to the depths of life and death," -Independent Book Review "A heartfelt meditation on what divides us from each other and from love." -The Arts Fuse "Astonishing. Sion Dayson is a bright new talent, full of verve, bravery and poetry. Read this incandescent novel and prepare to be mesmerized." -Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Butterfly Girl "A masterful debut...Read it for the questions it raises, the struggle it evokes, the connections it makes, and the compassion it incites." -The Museum of Americana "Reflective and lyrical...The river feels as fully realized as the novel's richly drawn characters, and at certain moments it transcends them-like time itself." -Small Press Picks
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