The Lost Country, a new posthumously published novel, is classic William Gay
William Gay’s writing doesn’t capture Middle Tennessee; it is Middle Tennessee, as much a part of the landscape as its fields and barns and creeks. Every turn of phrase, every scene describes with effortless perfection the curve of a hill, the angle of an eave, the lilt in a drawl.
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Vince Vawter takes young readers on a road trip to the Mississippi Delta
Copyboy, the new middle-grade novel by Vince Vawter, is a sequel worthy of its exceptional predecessor, Paperboy, a 2014 Newbery Honor Book. Vawter will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on July 31 and at East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 7.
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Beatriz Williams’s The Summer Wives explores the secrets of an insular community
Beatriz Williams’s The Summer Wives follows a young woman’s long entanglement with an insular island community and its coded world of secrets, gossip, and cross-cultural tensions. Williams will discuss The Summer Wives at Novel in Memphis on July 15.
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Kimberly Belle’s new thriller is a white-knuckled tale of child abduction
There are few unsavory aspects of modern life that Kingsport native Kimberly Belle doesn’t weave into Three Days Missing, a thriller that tells the heart-racing story of an eight-year-old boy gone missing. Belle will appear at Allandale Mansion in Kingsport on June 26 and at Novel in Memphis on July 9.
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Bestselling Christian writer Rachel Held Evans re-examines the evangelical teachings of her youth
In her new book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again, Dayton author Rachel Held Evans attempts to reconcile the simple religious instruction she received as a child with the complicated reality of life outside her faith community.
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In a posthumous collection, poet Diann Blakely casts her lot with outsiders
Rain in Our Door: Duets with Robert Johnson is the last and most radical collection by the late Nashville poet Diann Blakely. The book’s title is taken from the Mississippi musician’s own lyrics: “You better come on in my kitchen, cause there’s gonna be rain in our door.”
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