Southern Literary Fiction

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE “[Han Kang writes in] intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”—from the Nobel Prize citation The internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian presents a “rare...

This is the most distinguished novel that has come out of South Africa in the 20th century, and it is one of the most important novels of the modern era. Cry, the Beloved Country is in some ways a sad book; it is an indictment of a social system that drives native races into resentment and crime; it is a story of Fate, as inevitable, as relentless, as anything of Thomas Hardy's. Beautifully wrought with high poetic compassion, Cry, the Beloved Country is more than just a story, it is a profound experience of the human spirit.

A war divided a nation. Love and legacy divided two brothers. In the sultry fields of North Carolina, under the shadow of magnolia trees, Henry and Samuel Beauregard are bound by blood, honor, and a name older than the soil beneath their feet. But when the winds of war sweep across their homeland, what begins as a bond unbreakable by childhood oath becomes a mirror of a nation’s undoing. Henry—idealistic and questioning—seeks truth beyond the boundaries of inheritance. Samuel—proud and unyielding—clings to the traditions that shaped them both. As faith clashes with conscience and ...

Women’s rights activist, Lynn Cummings, switches up churches like shoes. As soon as her anointing is exposed, she runs – that is, until she finds a pew at First Baptist Church, where Lynn is anchored by the wiles of the debonair Pastor Stewart. Lynn, becomes the woman on Stewart’s arm, and with that, becomes the target of women who are always up in Pastor Stewart’s face, namely, his quote-unquote friend Bianca, the skin-bleaching, man-worshipping teen choir director who’ll stop at nothing to become Stewart’s first lady. Even Nay, the wife of Stewart’s right hand man, Associate...

The Last Good Seat at the Bar is a lyrical Southern story about coming home, facing ghosts, and rediscovering love. Burned-out journalist Morgan Langford retreats to her late grandfather’s coastal cabin in South Carolina, expecting only quiet and solitude. Instead, she finds the Low Country alive with memory: music drifting from an old record player, whispers of a presence she can’t explain, and a reunion with Ashley, the first love she thought she’d lost forever. As Morgan repairs the cabin and unravels family secrets, she confronts the truth about her grandfather’s death, her ...

Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.

A mountain girl in the early 1900’s copes with a marriage arranged by her dad. Her story is titled from an old saying “I own my land, heaven-high and hell-deep.” “Your pa gave his consent for us to marry,” he said the words as though it was a simple matter. It wasn’t a romantic proposal of love and devotion. It wasn’t a proposal at all. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I tried again. “I don’t know your name,” I managed to say as I felt my chest constrict. There was a pain in me that started at my toes and went to the roots of my hair. Dad had come up with a ...

They buried something beneath Cypress Hollow. Now it remembers. Lana Gray keeps to herself—curator of a half-forgotten museum in a swamp town most have already left behind. But when a local widow’s quiet unraveling leads to an unmarked shoe and a floor that seems to breathe, Lana stumbles into a pattern that stretches back decades. Maybe longer. The town is changing. The people are changing. And the roots run deeper than anyone knew. As memory distorts, nature recoils, and the soil begins to hum, Lana must decide whether to resist what’s waking beneath her—or become part of it. The ...

In a world where death has been solved, meaning is the real casualty. By the mid-22nd century, humanity no longer fears extinction. Consciousness can be recorded, stored, and restored from vast underground archives known as the Repositories. Resurrection is hailed as civilization’s greatest triumph—proof that nothing truly valuable need ever be lost. But not everyone is worth saving. Ilya Kade is a maintenance technician deep beneath the earth, tasked with preserving the stored minds of humanity’s “Essential” citizens. Officially classified as Nonessential, Ilya has no backup, no ...

On the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent, and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young Black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible. Left behind is a mysterious list of seven outrageous tasks that Raleigh must perform in order to rescue his father and his inheritance.

A widowed mountain girl copes with running her farm, getting another husband, and having children. Above all she strives to protect her mountain from land speculators. His hat was pulled low over his black hair and his shirt sleeves were rolled up almost to his elbows. His hands appeared strong and in control as he held the reins of his high stepping horse. He looked a little thinner than he used to be and a lot more tired. “What’s wrong?” he asked me fast. “You’ve got to go back to Banners Elk,” I told him, forgetting about supper. His eyes widened with concern. “Should you ...

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Is love between equals possible? This modern classic is a delightful intellectual love story that explores the deepest canyons of romantic love even as it asks large questions about society, geopolitics, and the mystery of what men and women really want...

For years, it was called a "deteriorating situation." Now it is war. All over South Africa, mobs of fugitive white people scramble to board departing flights. But Bam and Maureen Smales have no such option. They take up their servant July's suggestion and seek refuge in his remote home village, forever altering the relationship of servant and master. Now it is the Smales who are dependent on their host, their savior - their keeper. Nadine Gordimer is the winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

THE POSTHUMOUS MASTERWORK FROM "ONE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL MODERN WRITERS" (JAMES WOOD, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW) Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous...

From Chapter 2: ... “Did you see those folks from off while you were up there?” Gramps asked, but I didn’t answer, nor did I think Granny had seen me at all, but Gramps was good at guessing what I’d been up to. “What folks?” I asked as innocently as possible. Gramps grinned ever so slightly as he nodded toward my feet. “You got that red clay dirt on the bottom of your feet. That mountain is the only place where you can find that kind of red dirt.” I looked down and sure enough my feet were stained slightly orange by the red dirt I’d walked through instead of plain old ...

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.

William Wells Brown's Clotel (1853), the first novel written by an African American, was published in London while Brown was still legally regarded as property within the borders of the United States. The novel was inspired by the story of Thomas Jefferson's purported sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Brown fictionalizes the stories of Jefferson's mistress, daughters, and granddaughters, all of whom are slaves in order to demythologize the dominant U.S. cultural narrative celebrating Jefferson's America as a nation of freedom and equality for all.

This fascinating third volume in the Britannia's Fist series will have you pondering how easily history could have been swayed differently. What if other countries had become involved in America's Civil War? Historian Peter G. Tsouras presents the third installment in his Britannia's Fist alternate history series.

“[Narrator Waikamania] Seve's voice grows more dynamic as Korero grows into a heroine, while narrator Caleb Teaupa brings to life the wider world of Tongan society. Both performers beautifully convey the sounds of Pacific islands--from the trilling birds to the crashing waves."—AudioFile A...