First published 2015
Alan Lightman steps off the plane in Memphis after forty years away, carrying questions about the family he left behind. His grandfather M.A. Lightman built a movie theater empire that made the family prominent across the South, but his domineering presence crushed his own children, including Alan's father. Now aging relatives begin sharing long-held family stories, revealing truths Alan never understood as a young man. He discovers how M.A.'s fearless business success both inspired and paralyzed future generations. The family saga unfolds against Memphis itself from the 1880s through the civil rights era, complete with rhythm and blues, segregated society, and encounters with Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King Jr., and political boss E.H. Crump. Alan must reconcile his memories with reality and understand why he fled this world decades earlier. The book traces how one powerful patriarch's ghost continues shaping his descendants' lives.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, ghost-story
Setting: Memphis, South
Period: 1880s, Civil Rights Era
272 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon