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Zusatztext "FREE MEN will have you gasping for breath?This is literature at its finest: a novel about another time that-rather than alienate-instead clarifies and brings into view our own time?this is a story about flawed but earnest men and the flawed but earnest women left behind." Informationen zum Autor Katy Simpson Smith is the author of a study of early American motherhood, We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835 , and a novel, The Story of Land and Sea . She lives in New Orleans. Klappentext In 1788 three men converge in the southern woods of what is now Alabama: Cat, an emotionally scarred white man; Bob, a garrulous black man fleeing slavery; and Istillicha, who seeks retribution after being edged out of his Creek town’s leadership. In the few days they spend together, the makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. Sent to pick up their trail, a probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice or his own curiosity about how three such disparate, desperate men could act in unison. Katy Simpson Smith skillfully brings into focus men whose lives are both catastrophic and full of hope—and illuminates the beating heart of a new America. A captivating exploration of how four men grapple with the importance of family, the stain of guilt, and the competing forces of power, love, race, and freedom. Zusammenfassung From the author of the highly acclaimed The Story of Land and Sea comes a captivating novel! set in the late eighteenth-century American South! that follows a singular group of companions—an escaped slave! a white orphan! and a Creek Indian—who are being tracked down for murder. In 1788! three men converge in the southern woods of what is now Alabama. Cat! an emotionally scarred white man from South Carolina! is on the run after abandoning his home. Bob is a talkative black man fleeing slavery on a Pensacola sugar plantation! Istillicha! edged out of his Creek town’s leadership! is bound by honor to seek retribution. In the few days they spend together! the makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. Sent to pick up their trail! a probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice! or his own curiosity about how three such disparate! desperate men could act in unison. Katy Simpson Smith skillfully brings into focus men whose lives are both catastrophic and full of hope—and illuminates the lives of the women they left behind. Far from being anomalies! Cat! Bob! and Istillicha are the beating heart of the new America that Le Clerc struggles to comprehend. In these territories caught between European! American! and Native nations! a wilderness exists where four men grapple with the importance of family! the stain of guilt! and the competing forces of power! love! race! and freedom—questions that continue to haunt us today. ...
