Amity

The vivid sophomore novel from Harris (The Sweetness of Water) follows a formerly enslaved brother and sister in the tumultuous aftermath of the Civil War. June has done her best to protect her dreamy, bookish younger brother, Coleman, from the Harper family, who enslaved them in Baton Rouge before fleeing the estate during the battle for New Orleans. Now, in 1866, without any options, the two continue working for the Harpers in exchange for room and board. Mr. Harper hopes to make a killing in a Mexican silver mine, and after he takes June west, Coleman follows with Mrs. Harper and her strident daughter Florence. In Mexico, June falls in love with charismatic Black Seminole Isaac, flees Mr. Harper, and finds her way to the Black community of Amity. Coleman, meanwhile, endures a shipwreck, a kidnapping, and imprisonment by a Mexican general, who then enlists him to find Mr. Harper. All the while, Coleman hopes against hope that he will find June. Much of the novel is narrated by Coleman, whose sly humor and sharp observations cut others down to size (Mrs. Harper's "exaggeratedly robust" hoop skirt makes her look "as though she were seated in an upturned soup bowl"), and the well-developed plot generates strong suspense. It's an indelible slice of postbellum border history. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman. (Sept.)

A smartly imagined Western with a different sort of hero. "Time seemed to slow as June witnessed his death--saw the blood upon his shirt, his wound like a water pump given one weak draw, a small breath let free before a full flow that drenched his entire chest and face." In a sense, Harris' latest is a rejoinder to Cormac McCarthy'sBlood Meridian (1985), with plenty of bloodshed and a villain who's Holden and Glanton all rolled up into one. Coleman is a young New Orleanian who, newly emancipated, still works as a servant in the household he grew up in. The paterfamilias, Wyatt Harper, has taken off for the desert of northern Mexico, then under French rule, in the hope of finding his fortune building a railroad; he has taken Coleman's sister, June, with him, and with evident intent for her to do more than keep house. June escapes, falling in with a guerrilla band made up of Black and Native American men and women. Resourceful and smart, she fits right in, but now Harper is on the hunt for her, employing a grandiloquent ruffian to bring Coleman to him in order to persuade June to return. Misadventures ensue, with Coleman, shy and bookish, slowly discovering that he, too, is not without inner strength. Harris' characters are fully realized, and while some are familiar types, such as a sharp-tongued woman who could be an understudy for Mattie Ross fromTrue Grit, most are freshly cast. A nice touch is Coleman's attachment to the Harper family dog, who plays a strong role in the proceedings. To top off a skillfully constructed plot, Harris has a gift for vivid imagery ("The sun loomed overhead like a penny spat clean") and period language ("We thieved--we killed, yes--but who in this day and age, forced into such dark corners of this world, might not?"). A memorable, impeccably written tale that engages the reader, with its twists and turns, from beginning to end. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.