Fiction

July 27, 2012 Set in 1875, during Reconstruction, Taylor M. Polites’s The Rebel Wife features an action-laced plot that includes hidden money, a mysterious plague, fire, gunshots, and an ensemble cast of personalities with violently conflicting agendas. At the heart of the story is Augusta (Gus) Branson, the widowed rebel herself, who represents the irrevocable, life-altering changes Reconstruction wrought for everyone involved. Taylor M. Polites will read from and discuss The Rebel Wife at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

July 24, 2012 In The Baker’s Daughter Sarah McCoy delivers an intimate and nuanced view of people trapped in the nightmare culture of Aryan supremacy and draws an intriguing parallel to the current debate over immigration. McCoy will discuss The Baker’s Daughter at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

July 19, 2012 In Tom Franklin’s latest novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter—the novel’s title is derived from an old method for teaching elementary school students how to spell Mississippi—simultaneously paradisiacal and perilous forests form the thematic center of a compelling literary thriller that skillfully blends the conventions of crime fiction with sensitive examinations of Faulkner Country’s inescapable concerns: race, love, family secrets, and the twin demons of longing and regret. Franklin will discuss Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14, 2012, at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

July 18, 2012 Chris Cleave’s second novel, Little Bee enjoyed enormous critical and popular success. A devastatingly emotional but immensely readable tale about a young Nigerian refugee and a suburban London woman whose lives are drawn together by happenstance, Little Bee became a surprise hit, largely due to word of mouth. The novel has over two million copies in print and is being developed into a film by Nicole Kidman. Now, with Gold, his sweeping new novel about an intense competition between two Olympic cyclists, Cleave is poised to repeat that success. He will discuss and sign copies of Gold on July 24 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series at the Nashville Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.