First published 2023
Amarantha Douglas sits down to write another letter to her absent son from Russell's Knob, a hidden town in New Jersey's highlands. This retired school administrator has stories to tell about their community, stories that stretch back generations through the 20th and 21st centuries. Through her letters, she brings to life the families who built this place: the Smoots, Wilhelms, Murtaughs, and Coats. She writes about how their town survived slavery, war, and Jim Crow while keeping its history alive. Amarantha knows that Russell's Knob exists apart from the world, marooned in the highlands, but she also knows its people carry forward the voices of those who came before. Her letters become a way of asking what it means to keep the dead close, to honor those who built the foundation of everything they know.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: epistolary, found-family
Setting: Russell's Knob, New Jersey
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
168 pages · Paperback · Breena Clarke