The Queen of Palmyra

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Florence Forrest lives in Millwood, in 1963, a town like any other in the South at that time: segregated. Millwood proper is white. Shake Rag is the 'colored' side of town. Florence's father is a burial insurance salesman and a ne'er-do-well with dark secrets. Her mother, the local cake lady, is stuck in a marriage that has strayed far from her educated and liberal upbringing, making secret trips to the local bootlegger ...This leaves Florence with Zenie, her grandparent's longtime maid. Zenie, named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, drags Florence around and generally thinks of the girl as just another chore. As Florence spends more and more time in Zenie's home in Shake Rag, she develops a sense for how race truly divides her town, but nothing prepares her for what happens when Zenie's niece, the vibrant college student, Eva Green, comes to stay for the summer. And so Florence, who has moved fluidly between two families, between two races, finds herself stuck in the middle, a witness to the brutality and the truth of her times.

Reviews

...a brilliant and compelling novel... The beauty of the prose, the strength of voice and the sheer force of circumstance will hold the reader spellbound from beginning to end." -- Jill McCorkle, author of THE GOING AWAY SHOES

The most powerful and also the most lyrical novel about race, racism, and denial in the American South since To Kill A Mockingbird....A story about knowing and not knowing, The Queen of Palmyra is finally a testament to the ultimate power of truth and knowledge, language and love. -- Lee Smith, author of ON AGATE HILL

Divert your reader and, and then "clobber" them, advised Flannery O'Connor. In this bold and brilliant book, Minrose Gwin diverts us with the affecting voice of a child and then clobbers us with the ugly truths of our collective past. I can almost hear O'Connor cheering. -- Sharon Oard Warner, author of Deep in the Heart

Author Bio

Minrose Gwin is the author of the memoir Wishing for Snow, published by LSU Press in 2004. She has written three scholarly books and co-edited The Literature of the American South (Norton), and currently teaches contemporary fiction at UNC Chapel Hill. Like her character Florence, Minrose grew up in small town Mississippi in the 1960s. This is her debut novel.