Idgie Says:
This is a violent book. Of course you would expect violence during the War, but it just keeps coming at you. By chapter 3 I was on the edge of my seat wondering how anyone can possibly stay alive to the last page. The "children" in the novel have grown up very, very fast, no real help for that.
Callum forms an instant attachment for Ava when he and his gang come upon her, and he spends the rest of the book trying to find safety and a home for her. He never thinks twice about it. Though they live in constant violence, Ava must know how lucky she is to have this instant companion/caretaker by her side.
The writing is excellent and gritty. I do recommend this book. Also, the cover is gorgeous.
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Taylor Brown
St. Martin's Press
January, 2016
An Indie Next pick and an Okra 2016 Winter Selection!
Book Description:
Fallen Land is Taylor Brown's debut novel set in the final year
of the Civil War, as a young couple on horseback flees a dangerous band
of marauders who seek a bounty reward. Callum, a seasoned horse thief at
fifteen years old, came to America from his native Ireland as an
orphan. Ava, her father and brother lost to the war, hides in her
crumbling home until Callum determines to rescue her from the bands of
hungry soldiers pillaging the land, leaving destruction in their wake.
Ava and Callum have only each other in the world and their remarkable
horse, Reiver, who carries them through the destruction that is the
South. Pursued relentlessly by a murderous slave hunter, tracking dogs,
and ruthless ex-partisan rangers, the couple race through a beautiful
but ruined land, surviving on food they glean from abandoned farms and
the occasional kindness of strangers. In the end, as they intersect with
the scorching destruction of Sherman's March, the couple seek a safe
haven where they can make a home and begin to rebuild their lives.
Dramatic and thrillingly written with an uncanny eye for glimpses of
beauty in a ravaged landscape, Fallen Land is a love story at its core, and an unusually assured first novel by award-winning young author Taylor Brown.