The Story of Land and Sea: A Novel
- ISBN-10
- 0062335960
- ISBN-13
- 9780062335968
- Series
- The Story of Land and Sea
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 272
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2014-08-26
- Publisher
- Harper Collins
- Author
- Katy Simpson Smith
Description
Set in a small coastal town in North Carolina during the waning years of the American Revolution, this incandescent debut novel follows three generations of family—fathers and daughters, mother and son, master and slave, characters who yearn for redemption amidst a heady brew of war, kidnapping, slavery, and love. Drawn to the ocean, ten-year-old Tabitha wanders the marshes of her small coastal village and listens to her father’s stories about his pirate voyages and the mother she never knew. Since the loss of his wife Helen, John has remained land-bound for their daughter, but when Tab contracts yellow fever, he turns to the sea once more. Desperate to save his daughter, he takes her aboard a sloop bound for Bermuda, hoping the salt air will heal her. Years before, Helen herself was raised by a widowed father. Asa, the devout owner of a small plantation, gives his daughter a young slave named Moll for her tenth birthday. Left largely on their own, Helen and Moll develop a close but uneasy companionship. Helen gradually takes over the running of the plantation as the girls grow up, but when she meets John, the pirate turned Continental soldier, she flouts convention and her father’s wishes by falling in love. Moll, meanwhile, is forced into marriage with a stranger. Her only solace is her son, Davy, whom she will protect with a passion that defies the bounds of slavery. In this elegant, evocative, and haunting debut, Katy Simpson Smith captures the singular love between parent and child, the devastation of love lost, and the lonely paths we travel in the name of renewal.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Between The Land And The Sea
By Derrolyn AndersonMarina is a privileged girl who's had an unusual upbringing.
-
A Story of Land and Sea
By Lord DunsanyIt was not age that caused him to leave his romantic profession; nor unworthiness of its traditions, nor gun-shot wound, nor drink; but grim necessity and force majeure.
-
Sea and land
By J.W. BuelAll the wonders of land have their counterpart in the see, whether animals, birds or reptiles, monstrosities, or su'n-hued ... Wild and uncouth forms, dreadful as the Cyclopean Polyphcmus, ravage the sea-World, while about the Madripore ...
-
Of Land and Sea: The Untold Story of The Little Mermaid
By Lisa DawnLearn the untold story of the little mermaid who lost her chance at love and the woman who gained it in her place in this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale.
-
Land Mammals and Sea Creatures: A Novel
By Jen NealeA stunning exploration of love and grief, Land Mammals and Sea Creatures is magic realism on the seaside, a novel about living life to the fullest and coming to your own terms with its end.
-
A Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha's Vineyard
By David R. Foster"Two decades of research by Foster and his colleagues at the Harvard Forest encompass the native people and prehistory of the Vineyard, climate change and coastal dynamics, colonial farming and modern tourism, and land planning and ...
-
The Land Beyond the Sea
By Sharon Kay PenmanFrom the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sharon Kay Penman comes the story of the reign of King Baldwin IV and the Kingdom of Jerusalem's defense against Saladin's famous army.
-
By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia
By Edward J. Marolda, Naval Historical CenterBy Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia
-
I Go by Sea, I Go by Land
By P. L. TraversOh, please let us come back soon, please.' This is the fictional diary of Sabrina Lind, an eleven-year-old English girl who, with her little brother James, is sent on the long voyage across the sea to her aunt in America.
-
Sea and Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean
By Stuart B. Schwartz, Matthew Mulcahy, John R. McNeillTalking Taíno: Essays on Caribbean Natural History from a Native Perspective. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008. Keegan, William F., Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, Michelle J. LeFebvre, and Peter T. Sinelli.