Balm - Hardcover

Perkins-Valdez, Dolen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410483355 ISBN 13: 9781410483355

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2015

Synopsis

"Set during the Civil War era and exploring the next chapter of history-the end of slavery-this powerful story of love and healing is about three people who struggle to overcome the pain of the past and define their own future"--

About this title

From the Back Cover:

“Powerful characters and exquisite prose bring to life a tumultuous period of American history that still demands our attention.”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl

The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others’ suffering and ease it, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and continue to help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.

Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.

Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.

In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in an unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest.

“A powerful novel inspired by our nation’s past.” —New York Journal of Books

“The complexity of her characters and visual power of her prose make for riveting reading.”—Valerie Martin, author of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste

About the Author:

Dolen Perkins-Valdez's fiction and essays have appeared in Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories 2009, The Kenyon Review, PMS: PoemMemoirStory, North Carolina Literary Review, and the Richard Wright Newsletter. She is a former University of California postdoctoral fellow and graduate of Harvard. Perkins-Valdez lives in Washington DC with her family.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1410483355
• ISBN 13: 9781410483355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 420