Four Spirits
By Sena Jeter Naslund
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060936693, 560pp.)
Publication Date: August 13, 2004
Other Editions of This Title: eBook, Prebound (September 2004), Audio Cassette (September 2003), Hardcover (September 2003)
Categories: Political, Historical - General
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Weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, racists and civil rights advocates, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression, Sena Jeter Naslund creates a tapestry of American social transformation at once intimate and epic.
In Birmingham, Alabama, twenty-year-old Stella Silver, an idealistic white college student, is sent reeling off her measured path by events of 1963. Combining political activism with single parenting and night-school teaching, African American Christine Taylor discovers she must heal her own bruised heart to actualize meaningful social change. Inspired by the courage and commitment of the civil rights movement, the child Edmund Powers embodies hope for future change. In this novel of maturation and growth, Naslund makes vital the intersection of spiritual, political, and moral forces that have redefined America.
Sena Jeter Naslund is the author of the novels Four Spirits and Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette and a short story collection, The Disobedience of Water. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she is a winner of the Harper Lee Award; Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville; director of the Spalding University brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program; former poet laureate of Kentucky; and editor of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press.
"...contains one of the most astonishing pieces of writing to appear in any novel of recent memory.
-Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Vital and moving...It's as if Virginia Woolf went down to Birmingham to cover the civil rights struggle."
-New York Times Book Review
"Filled with the fear Naslund witnessed, the characters ...come to life ....Naslund succeeds splendidly in making history a page-turner."
-USA Weekend
"This is a brave and multifaceted book, propelled by a mission, and ...it is a page-turner."
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Told in beautifully crafted prose, this is a moving, historically accurate tale of a time of social transformation."
-Library Journal (starred review)
"Naslund's insight and craftsmanship ...capture the complexities and cultural nuances of the times."
-San Diego Union-Tribune
"A major novel of great cultural and historical importance."
-Louisville Courier Journal
"This is a wonderful, wonderful novel ...[Naslund] has blown a deep breath of life into Four Spirits."
-Detroit Free Press
"Crisp, insightful writing."
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"...A compelling picture of the South and the civil rights movement during one of its pivotal moments."
-Denver Post
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