Serena
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A relentless young woman and her husband will go to any lengths to build a timber empire and prevent the land from being converted into a national park in Depression-era North Carolina. With intensively realistic prose and mesmerizing characters, the narrative sizes from the first scene through the dramatic climax.
This finely crafted allegory is both timeless and timely. With poetic grace and journalistic efficiency, the author has crafted a compelling narrative, a fearsomely memorable protagonist a darkly threatening mood and a sense of place both grand and bleak.