First published 1994
Anson Page steps off the train in Pompey's Head, South Carolina, after fifteen years away. The successful New York lawyer has returned to investigate a legal matter involving his childhood friend's family. Walking the familiar streets triggers memories of his youth in this sleepy Southern town during the 1920s and 1930s. Page reconnects with old friends and confronts the social hierarchies that once shaped his world. He remembers his friendship with Dinny Heyward and his complicated feelings for Dinny's sister. The investigation forces Page to examine not just the legal case but his own past choices. He must decide whether the life he built in New York was worth abandoning his Southern roots. The return becomes a reckoning with memory, loyalty, and the price of leaving home behind.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, return-to-hometown
Setting: Pompey's Head, South Carolina, New York
Period: 1920s, 1930s
Hardcover · Buccaneer Books