Amity

The vivid sophomore novel from Harris (The Sweetness of Water) follows a formerly enslaved brother and sister in the tumultuous aftermath of the Civil War. June has done her best to protect her dreamy, bookish younger brother, Coleman, from the Harper family, who enslaved them in Baton Rouge before fleeing the estate during the battle for New Orleans. Now, in 1866, without any options, the two continue working for the Harpers in exchange for room and board. Mr. Harper hopes to make a killing in a Mexican silver mine, and after he takes June west, Coleman follows with Mrs. Harper and her strident daughter Florence. In Mexico, June falls in love with charismatic Black Seminole Isaac, flees Mr. Harper, and finds her way to the Black community of Amity. Coleman, meanwhile, endures a shipwreck, a kidnapping, and imprisonment by a Mexican general, who then enlists him to find Mr. Harper. All the while, Coleman hopes against hope that he will find June. Much of the novel is narrated by Coleman, whose sly humor and sharp observations cut others down to size (Mrs. Harper’s “exaggeratedly robust” hoop skirt makes her look “as though she were seated in an upturned soup bowl”), and the well-developed plot generates strong suspense. It’s an indelible slice of postbellum border history. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman. (Sept.)