Four Spirits - Hardcover

Naslund, Sena Jeter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0066212383 ISBN 13: 9780066212388

Publisher: William Morrow, 2003

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of the national bestseller Ahab's Wife comes an inspiring, brilliantly rendered new novel of the awakening conscience of the South and of an entire nation.

Written with the same scope and emotional depth as her previous award-winning novel, Four Spirits is set in Sena Jeter Naslund's home city of Birmingham, Alabama, a city that in the 1960s was known as Bombingham. Naslund brings to life this tumultuous time, weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, civil rights advocates and racists, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression, to create a tapestry of American social transformation.

Stella Silver is an idealistic, young white college student brought up by her genteel, mannered aunts. She first witnesses the events of the freedom movement from a safe distance but, along with her friend Cat Cartwright, is soon drawn into the mounting conflagration. Stella's and Cat's lives are forever altered by their new friendships with other committed freedom fighters.

A student at a black college, Christine Taylor is inspired to action by the examples of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. She courageously struggles to balance her family responsibilities, education, and work with the passions and dangers of the demonstrations. Her friend Gloria Callahan, a gifted young cellist and descendant of a runaway slave, tries to move beyond her personal shyness and family coziness to enter a wider circle, including blacks and whites, men and women, all involved with the protests. Lionel Parrish, teacher, preacher, and peddler of funeral insurance, battles his own demons of lust and self-preservation, while New York activist Jonathan Green gives up a promising career as a pianist to work for racial justice in the South.

These characters all add their voices to the chorus that makes up this symphony of innocent children and the mythic elderly, the devoutly religious and the skeptical humanist, the wealthy and the poor, the city and the country. Poignant and evocative, rich in historical detail, and filled with the humanity that is the hallmark of Naslund's fiction, Four Spirits is a compelling tale that transcends tragedy and evokes redemptive triumph.

About this title

About the Author:

Sena Jeter Naslund is a cofounder and program director of the Spalding University (Louisville) brief-residency MFA in Writing, where she edits The Louisville Review and Fleur-de-Lis Press. A winner of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction award, she is the author of eight previous works of fiction, including Ahab's Wife, a finalist for the Orange Prize. She recently retired from her position as Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville.

From AudioFile:

It is 1963, in Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., writes his now famous "Letter From the Birmingham Jail," Police Chief Bull Connor uses fire hoses and attack dogs on peaceful demonstrators, and four young girls are murdered when the Baptist church is bombed. Amid these real events, Isabel Keating brings Naslund's many fictional characters into vivid relief. Her Southern accents are never caricatures. Her authentic rendering of supremacists and integrationists, the blessed and the abused in this time of cultural upheaval, spotlights ordinary souls who must face their personal demons, their heritage of bigotry, and the moral complexities of a changing world. Naslund's compassion and understanding of the time, the people, and the events, combined with a sensitive reading by Keating, elevate Four Spirits into quality fiction. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0066212383
• ISBN 13: 9780066212388
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544