Katy Simpson Smith

I finished this back in September and forgot to write a review - which I only do for stories I LOVE!

Katy Simpson Smith wrote deftly of a time that was difficult, when our country was young, and recovering from the fight for the freedoms we enjoy today. But the story is not about that. It's about a young girl named Tabitha, whose father, John, is already grieving the loss of Tabitha's mother, Helen. When the young girl contracts yellow fever, he takes her out to sea, a sea her mother loved, and where he hopes to heal her.

The story then sets out on a different path, taking the reader back to Tabitha's mother's childhood revealing how she grew up under the careful, watchful eye of her father, Asa. Asa owns a plantation of pines worked by slaves, and makes his money from the harvesting of pine resin. On Helen's tenth birthday, he gives her a slave girl, Moll. Part of the novel centers on their relationship, one of give and take, push and pull, of justice, and injustice, and all the emotional complexities that made them love and resent one another.

Both John and Asa contend for not only the love of Helen, but eventually Tabitha. John was not the sort of man Asa expected his daughter to marry. He was a pirate, turned soldier, and he committed the ultimate sin of taking her to sea, away from Asa, and out from under his control. Then Tabitha comes along, and Asa, much like John, diverts his love to his granddaughter after Helen is gone.

This is a condensed story, not very long, abut it is rich in detail, and we are transported back to post-Colonial times with ease. As the story progresses the timelines intersect and Asa and John will be forced to contend with one another in a very different manner than in their recent past where the realization they are not that different, that they loved the same people equally comes to light.

And then there is Moll, desirous of her freedom, and the difficulty Asa perceives in this, which is really his own inability to simply let go. To let go of Helen, Tabitha, and even Moll.

Highly recommend to those who enjoy reading unique historical fiction!… (altro)

From a supremely talented author comes this brilliant and inventive literary work of historical fiction, set in Rome in four different centuries, that explores love in all its various incarnations and ponders elemental questions of good and evil, obedience and free will that connect four unforgettable lives .

Spanning two thousand years, The Everlasting follows four characters whose struggles resonate across the centuries: an early Christian child martyr; a medieval monk on crypt duty in a church; a Medici princess of Moorish descent; and a contemporary field biologist conducting an illicit affair.

Moving back through time from today (The Wilderness) to the Renaissance (The City) to the Middle Ages (The Grave) and finally to Rome under Marcus Aurelius (The Paradise), Tom, Guilia, Felix, and Prisca search and suffer for love in the eternal city, made vivid and familiar as they reappear in each century.… (altro)

Eight chapters tell the stories of four individuals in four different time periods all set in Rome. One man some sort of micro-biologist is in Rome studying some sort of tiny creature. The second set in the 1500's is about a bi-racial Medici who is pregnant but doesn't want to be. The third is a monk whose job in the 800's is to take care of the decaying bodies of other monks and the last set in the 100's is of Saint Prisca, a young girl who is killed because he is a Christian.

Part of this book was great reading and part was just totally convoluted. There were some sentences that just didn't seem to make sense. It is supposed to be something about faith and fate, etc., but wasn't worth the effort to read all.… (altro)