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Synopsis:

A dramatic and thought-provoking novel of one family's triumph in the face of the hardships and challenges of the post-Civil War South.
The Wake of the Wind, J. California Cooper's third novel, is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families. Set in Texas in the waning years of the Civil War, the novel tells the dramatic story of a remarkable heroine, Lifee, and her husband, Mor. When Emancipation finally comes to Texas, Mordecai, Lifee, and the extended family they create from other slaves who are also looking for a home and a future, set out in search of a piece of land they can call their own. In the face of constant threats, they manage not only to survive but to succeed--their crops grow, their children thrive, they educate themselves and others. Lifee and Mordecai pass their intelligence, determination, and talents along to their children, the next generation to surge forward. At once tragic and triumphant, this is an epic story that captures with extraordinary authenticity the most important struggle of the last hundred years.

From the Publisher:

In its strong folk flavor, Cooper's work reminds us of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Her style is deceptively simple and direct, and the vale of tears in which her characters reside is never so deep that a rich chuckle at a foolish person's foolishness cannot be heard. It is a delight to read."
--Alice Walker

"Cooper's power comes from sticking to her instinct, which is to tell a story, plain and simple."
--Washington Post

"Cooper is as down-home as Zora Neale Hurston, thank you, and blooming into as skilled a storyteller. Cooper's characters are the folk heroes of black culture."
--Essence

"With power and grace, Cooper weaves the dialect, style, and myths of the South into a portrait of the hell that was slavery."
--Publishers Weekly

What a voice...Ms. Cooper celebrates family, freedom, perseverance, life, and...powerful voices finally heard."
--Atlanta Constitution

Our December AGB Book Club meeting is Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. via Google Meet. (Due to the pandemic, we will have virtual meetings.)

Please RSVP at avantgardebooks@gmail.com. We'll have an informal, engaging discussion about lessons learned from the book. THANK YOU for reading with us! #LetsReadTogether