Abigail Cutter’s new novel “What the Trees Remember” is very much in the vein of one of my favorite Southern novels, Charles Frazier’s “Cold Mountain.” Cutter’s deep love and appreciation for the mountains in eastern Virginia shines through, as does her knowledge of the flora and fauna of this region. She chronicles post-Civil War history in Virginia, as well as the impact of Hurricane Camile in 1969, with an authoritative voice.
“What the Trees Remember” is the story of a Quaker family who believes all people are created equal and deserve respect and an education, contrary to the beliefs of their neighbors. Widowed Alma Minor raises her granddaughter Dora amid a violent backlash against these Quaker beliefs, resulting in violence and a lynching.
The narrative shifts time periods and points of view but Cutter keeps the reader grounded in place and story. All the characters are vividly realized, inspiring individuals who draw strength from their convictions and from the natural world.
This is a coming-of-age story about choices, grief, secrets, revenge, and redemption.
Dora Minor, a quirky and fiercely courageous girl, grows up in a remote Virginia mountain community in a family of outliers, thanks to their Quaker beliefs that all people are born equal. After her mother's death, her indomitable, pipe-smoking grandmother Alma - a revolutionary in her own right - becomes her primary caregiver and protector. With a fierce moral compass, Alma helps shape Dora's worldview and guides her to question the status quo. When Dora's father partners with formerly enslaved Ginny Dudley to open a school for Black children in a place where none would otherwise exist, it sparks a…
Anna Jean Mayhew's scenes are beautifully set and she realistically captures the time period of Jim Crow North Carolina. Her characters were complex and believable. I particularly loved the main character, Jubie. A coming-of-age story about love of family and reckoning with a family's weaknesses and limitations.
“Taut, thoughtful, and complex.” —Publishers Weekly
Set in 1950s North Carolina, Anna Jean Mayhew’s instant classic coming of age novel, which evokes the writing of Sue Monk Kidd, is a heartwarming, vividly transporting depiction of Southern life in the throes of segregation, what it will mean for a young girl on her way to adulthood—and for the woman who means the world to her…
**Includes an updated discussion guide and new letter to readers from Anna Jean Mayhew!
On a scorching day in August 1954, thirteen-year-old Jubie Watts leaves Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family for a Florida vacation. Crammed…
From the acclaimed author of The Girls in the Stilt House comes a long-awaited novel both atmospheric and lyrical, a haunting Southern story about memory, family secrets, and fierce and fragile love.
For nearly thirty years, Nell has kept a childhood promise to never reveal what she and Evie found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre in their mother's bookcase―a record of Evie's birth naming a stranger as her mother. But lately, Nell has been haunted by hazy memories of their early life in Mississippi, years their reclusive mother, Hazel, has kept shrouded in secrecy. Evie recalls nothing before…
Five neighbors in a suburban coastal town divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices, realize they have more in common than they ever imagined.
