Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Remembering the Ghost

Sharyn McCrumb’s latest historical novel revisits a murder trial with a supernatural twist

The Unquiet Grave, Sharyn McCrumb’s latest historical novel, is based on a true story, chronicling the notorious trial of a horse-stealing blacksmith accused of strangling his third wife to death in 1897.

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So Let Me Burn

In Fire Sermon, Jamie Quatro explores the intersections of love, obsession, and spirituality

With virtuosic lyricism and the striking juxtaposition of religious and erotic obsession, Jamie Quatro’s Fire Sermon delivers an unforgettable and astonishingly original portrait of the moral and psychological consequences of unfaithfulness. Quatro will discuss Fire Sermon at Arts Build in Chattanooga on January 11 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 6.

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The Asset

Excerpt: Agent in Place

Mark Greaney’s famous assassin, Court Gentry, is back in Agent in Place. This time he’s working on behalf of a group of Syrian expats to secure the Syrian president’s mistress so they can use her to bring down the president’s regime. But the expats’ plan goes awry when it’s discovered the mistress has a baby–the Syrian president’s only male heir–hidden away in a Damascus safe house. Agent in Place will be published on February 20, 2018.

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A Friend from Chile

The seeds of a novel are sown in a friend’s disappearance

Worrying for years about a question with no answer is more than a little neurotic. It can also provide fertile soil for plot development.

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Love Is Not Enough

In Joan Silber’s Improvement, women cope with the aftermath of self-made catastrophes

Joan Silber’s Improvement follows a dozen characters over four decades on three continents, but all the stories revolve around a single question: how to keep living after your plans have crumbled to dust. Silber will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 30 at 6:30 p.m.

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The Mind Is Its Own Place

Lee Conell’s debut story collection, Subcortical, explores the brain’s strange connections

In her debut story collection, Subcortical, Lee Conell depicts smart characters who are mysteries to themselves. The book’s title provides an accurate index for the wit and sophistication to be found in this volume. Conell will appear on November 29 at Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt at 6 p.m.

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