First published 1997
Lucy Marsden sits in her nursing home at age 99, ready to tell everything. Born in 1885 in North Carolina, she married Captain Willie Marsden when she was just 15. He was 51, a Civil War veteran who had joined the Confederate army at 13. Now Lucy unspools her remarkable memory, recounting nearly 150 years of stories. She describes Cap's passionate love and his war against the Yankees. She tells of their nine children and Castalia, the former enslaved woman who became part of their lives. She remembers the Lilac estate where Lady Marsden played her white piano while the South burned around them. Lucy's humor cuts through every tale. Her energy never flags. Her memory holds every detail. This extraordinary old woman weaves together the most vivid and unexpected pieces of her long life into one magnificent story that echoes the great Southern storytellers.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: North Carolina, Castalia, Lilac Estate
Period: 1885, Civil War
720 pages · Paperback · PLON