Readings From Three Novels

Leonard Pitts, Jr., is a Pulitzer Prize winning nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and a bestselling novelist. He has written three previous novels, Grant Park, Freeman, and Before I Forget, as well as two works of nonfiction. His historical novel The Last Thing You Surrender (Agate Bolden) is an American tale of race and war, following three characters from the Jim Crow South as they face the enormous changes World War II triggers in the United States. Set against a backdrop of violent racial conflict on both the front lines and the home front, The Last Thing You Surrender explores the powerful moral struggles of individuals from a divided nation. In a starred review Booklist noted that it “Seamlessly integrates impressive research into a compelling tale of America at war—overseas, at home, and within ourselves, as we struggle to find the better angels of our nature. Pitts poignantly illustrates ongoing racial and class tensions, and offers hope that we can overcome hatred by refusing to sacrifice dignity.”

Susan Richards Shreve is the author of fifteen novels, most recently You Are the Love of My Life, a memoir, and twenty-nine books for children. Her novel More News Tomorrow (W.W. Norton & Co.), is a thrilling and richly drawn family drama about a daughter’s quest to understand her mother’s death. On the morning of her seventieth birthday, Georgianna Grove receives an unexpected letter that calls her back to the place where her mother was murdered sixty-six years earlier. Her father had confessed to the murder the next morning. Celebrated for her “refined explorations of parent-child relationships” (Washington Post), Shreve sets Georgianna one quest to finally understand her parents’ fate. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout noted that “In this enormously varied and yet tied-together book, Shreve has written a story of multi-generations―the great mysteries surrounding the things we know and the things we don’t know, and she has done this with a prose that is intriguingly delicate and yet strong at the same time; More News Tomorrow is one of her very best books.”

William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Ordinary Grace, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel, as well as eighteen Cork O’Connor novels, including Desolation Mountain and Sulfur Springs. His latest book, This Tender Land (Atria Books) tells the story of four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression. Parade writes, “This novel is as big-hearted as they come.” Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.