Fiction

May 31, 2011 James Still’s final manuscript, penned over the last fifteen years of his life and with him in the hospital room when he died a decade ago, has finally been published. Edited by Silas House, Chinaberry is a moving, gorgeously written coming-of-age novel and a fine capstone to the career of one of Appalachia’s most influential writers.

May 24, 2011 For Marina Lucero, as for Sartre, hell is other people. Try as she might, Marina, heroine of Lorraine López’s new novel, The Realm of Hungry Spirits, can’t seem to wrench free of the gravitational pull of her family and friends. While she feels a kinship with the teachings of the Dalai Lama and Gandhi, her loved ones constantly challenge her efforts at greater compassion—sometimes with comic results.

May 18, 2011 It’s the rare novel that can detail horrific evil and still illuminate the best of the human spirit, turning a reader thoughtful, inward, almost spiritual. That’s what Chattanooga native Jane Bradley has managed to do with her new book You Believers, a heartbreaking narrative with a capacity for finding deliverance in the wake of a life devastated by evil. Bradley will sign copies of the book at 7 p.m. on May 19 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood.

May 5, 2011 In The Dashwood Sisters Tell All, the third Jane Austen-themed novel by Nashvillian Beth Pattillo, estranged sisters Ellen and Mimi Dodge take a Jane Austen walking tour to scatter their mother’s ashes. It is clear, even to them, that their mother’s final wish was designed to bring them closer together. The sisters doubt her plan will work, but as the week proceeds, they learn more about themselves, each other, their mother, and even some secrets about Jane Austen herself. Beth Pattillo will read from The Dashwood Sisters Tell All at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on May 6 at 7 p.m.