First published 2021
Winona Cole, a young Lakota orphan, lives on a struggling farm outside Paris, Tennessee, in the years following the Civil War. Her adoptive father John Cole and his companion Thomas McNulty, both former soldiers, raise her alongside freed slaves Tennyson Bouguereau and his sister Rosalee on Lige Magan's property. This makeshift family works to survive while keeping the brutal outside world at bay. But Tennessee remains torn by the war's legacy. When strangers violently attack first Winona, then Tennyson, Colonel Purton mobilizes the townspeople to drive the family away. As Winona approaches adulthood, she must navigate questions of identity and belonging while her unusual family faces mounting hostility. The novel explores love, memory, and redemption through the fierce spirit of a girl coming of age in a divided land.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, outsiders
Setting: Paris, Tennessee
Period: Post-Civil War
240 pages · Paperback · JOELLE LOSFELD
Content warnings: violence