
Prince Edward by Dennis Mcfarland
The profound coming-of-age story of a young boy growing up in rural Virginia, and the historic summer that would change his life foreverDuring the summer of 1959, Virginia's Prince Edward County is entirely consumed by passionate resistance against, and in other corners, support for, the desegregation of schools as mandated by Brown v. Board of Education. Benjamin Rome, the ten-year-old son of a chicken farmer in one of the county's small townships, struggles to comprehend the furor that surrounds him, even as he understands the immorality of racial prejudice. Within his own family, opinions are sharply divided, and it is against this charged backdrop that Ben spends the summer working with his friend Burghardt, a black farmhand, under the predatory gaze of Ben's grandfather.
While the elders of Prince Edward focus on closing the schools, life ambles on, and Ben grows closer to his pregnant sister, Lainie, and his troubled older brother, Al, while also coming to recognize the painful and inherent limitations of his friendship with Burghardt.
Evocative and written with lush historical detail, Prince Edward is a refreshing bildungsroman by bestselling author Dennis McFarland, and a striking portrait of the social upheaval in the American South on the eve of the civil rights movement.
First-rate . . . particularly resonant and poignant . . . Framing its story around actual historical events, it beautifully re-creates childhood's timeless mysteries. -Newsday
Graceful and empathetic, Prince Edward eloquently encapsulates how much was at stake and which set of values deserved to overcome. -The Miami Herald
[McFarland's] style is easy and smooth, the descriptions etched in simple language and all the more powerful because of it. -The Boston Sunday Globe
Thoughtful and resonant. -Francine Prose
DENNIS McFARLAND is the author of six previous novels: Letter from Point Clear, Prince Edward, Singing Boy, A Face at the Window, School for the Blind, and The Music Room. His short fiction has appeared in The American Scholar, The New Yorker, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and Best American Short Stories, among other publications. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, where he has also taught creative writing. Nostalgia was awarded the Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. McFarland lives in rural Vermont with his wife, the writer and poet Michelle Blake.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781504074193 |
| ISBN 10 | 150407419X |
| Title | Prince Edward |
| Author | Dennis Mcfarland |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Open Road Media |
| Year published | 2022-04-07 |
| Number of pages | 332 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |