The main character of Freshwater Road is Celeste Tyree, an African-American college student from the University of Michigan. But one could easily acquire a knee-high stack of books with exactly that plot in a couple minutes of browsing the best seller lists. Which isn’t to say the books are poor, or the writers of them overrated. But the standard trope of African American historical fiction involves slaves, often with a White person whose destiny or past intertwines with that of a slave, in a story so unforgettably heartbreaking you can’t put it down, and blah, blah, blah. Most bestsellers in this genre focus on slavery. Peruse the bestseller lists of African American historical fiction, however, and you won’t find many. Considering how dramatic it was, the heroism of some of its participants, and how important the movement became, this seems like it should be fertile ground for novelists. I’m often surprised there are relatively few novels about the Civil Rights Movement in the US. This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger To read my other recent book reviews, see:Ī Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende Freshwater Road is a historical novel from Denise Nicholas and appeared in 2008.
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