First published 2021
Louisiana, 1860. Madame Sylvie Guilbert has ruled Le Petit Cottage plantation for over sixty years. Now she wants to commission a portrait, despite her family's protests. As Madame Sylvie plans this final grand gesture, the stories emerge from every corner of the plantation. In the big house, secrets run as deep as buried treasure. Out in the fields, enslaved people endure daily brutalities while forging connections that transcend their bondage. The portrait sitting becomes a lens through which multiple generations reveal themselves. Descendants and enslaved people alike carry the weight of tangled histories. Rita Williams-Garcia weaves together the interconnected lives of everyone bound to this place, showing how slavery's violence touches every soul on the plantation, from those who wield power to those who suffer under it.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 19th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: interconnected-lives, multiple-perspectives
Setting: Louisiana, Le Petit Cottage
Period: 1860
Audio CD · Blackstone Pub
Content warnings: slavery, violence