Two More Books with Ties to Kingstree

For those of you who last year enjoyed Silk: Caroline's Story by Sophia Alexander, I have some good news for you. The second novel in the trilogy, Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel, is set for release this Friday, April 22.

Tapestry follows the coming of age of Caroline's two daughters, Vivian and Gaynelle, during the late nineteen teens and early 1920s. And like Silk, it is set in Kingstree and Greeleyville. Sophia has again christened her characters with names pulled from her own family tree.  

Vivian and Gaynelle struggle to adapt to their mother's death and to their new stepmother, Jessie. Jessie continues to go her own sociopathic way, anonymously leaving mayhem in her wake, but by the end of the book, there are hints that perhaps Gaynelle's law enforcement officer husband Joel is getting wise to the fact that there is more to Jessie than most people realize.

As in Silk, Sophia draws on vignettes from real happenings in the Kingstree of that time, as told by Bessie Swann Britton in her newspaper column, to add authenticity to the setting. 

A tapestry in the home of their late mother's best friend, Anne, depicting the fairy tale Rapunzel, helps weave the various threads of the story of young love, mysterious happenings, and hard questions together, as well as to provide the name for this second novel in the trilogy. 

I was honored to read an advance copy of the book several months ago. It was one of those novels that sucks you in and that you find difficult to put down until you turn the last page. The tie-in to local names and places makes it all the more appealing. Sophia Alexander lives in Savannah, but has deep roots in Williamsburg County.

Another book with a connection to Kingstree, published in October of last year, is Angels Long to Look: Gospel Encounters with Jesus by D. Marion Clark. Marion, a classmate of mine who grew up in Kingstree, is a retired Presbyterian minister, now devoting much of his time to writing.

Angels Long to Look is a collection of short pieces, detailing the imagined innermost thoughts of many of the individuals who came in contact with Jesus during his life and ministry. These vignettes help the reader to realize that although there is a span of 2,000 years between their lives and ours, they re-acted to the events of their time much as we re-act to contemporary events. Their reactions to those events help us to see the events of long ago with fresh eyes. The characters become more real and the stories that we've read in the Bible take on new life.

I was fortunate to read the sections dealing with Jesus' last Passover, his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension over the last week, a time when the world was observing the yearly anniversary of these events. To tap into the differing perspectives of those varied individuals who were so intimately involved gave a new depth and meaning to these commemorations.

I continue to find gratifying the number of books and authors with ties to Kingstree and Williamsburg County. We may be a small, rural community, but we are well represented in the literary world. I already know of several other authors with ties here who are hard at work on books that we will be able to look forward to.