The lag between emancipation and the freedom to live as truly equal citizens is a struggle which carries on to this day so although it's a historical novel it feels extremely relevant. I felt very sympathetic with the story which describes the lives and struggles of people not often portrayed in fiction. I think it's to do with how the high drama of the plot felt so tightly controlled in a way that seemed more manufactured than logical.

Though the central characters are sensitively drawn with many quiet, contemplative moments and evocative dialogue, there's something about this story which failed to fully capture my imagination. The novel follows a series of heartrending events which result from these conflicts and how individuals struggle to insist upon their rightful place in this newly reformed society. But the brothers' former owner still thinks of them as his property, the locals are wary that the newly freed slaves will take their work from them and a secret love affair threatens to disrupt the social order of this community. Since George and his wife Isabelle are also dealing with their own grief and planning how to manage their property for the future, they invite these men to work with them so that they may all prosper.

Both he and Prentiss also still suffer from the loss of their mother. While on the plantation Landry suffered immeasurable daily abuse which left him with injuries so severe he can barely speak. Though they have left as free men they don't yet have the foundation to build independent lives for themselves and dwell in the forest of a nearby farm owned by a kindly rotund white man named George. Brothers Landry and Prentiss were born into slavery at a Georgia plantation. It's difficult to visualize how a monumental shift in society such as the end of the American Civil War changed the ways in which people related to one another in their communities, but Nathan Harris has imagined one such story in his debut novel “The Sweetness of Water”.

The sweetness of water book