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| THE SUMMER WE GOT SAVED From the author of the critically acclaimed Out of the Night That Covers Me and My Last Days as Roy Rogers comes a triumphant and unforgettable novel that masterfully interweaves the lives of three people amid the changing South of the 1960s. Tab is fast growing into an opinionated, intransigent teenager, appalled by the attitudes of her liberal Berkeley-based aunt--until Aunt Eugenia comes for a summer visit and whisks Tab, and her sister Tina, off to a strange place in the mountains of Tennessee where integration flourishes. Charles, Tab's father, has always conformed to the political dictates of family, going back to the time of slavery--until this summer, when he sees new hope for his community and his state in the guise of a New South candidate for governor. Maudie, once a childhood friend of Tab's, couldn't care less about what happens to the struggles of her black brothers and sisters, as long as she gets to leave the confines of the Tuskegee Polio Clinic--until she lands in the backwoods of Alabama and starts a voting school for members of the Word of Truth Missionary Baptist Church. This summer, none of them set out to be involved in the swirling winds of change that are engulfing the country, and if they're lucky, they won't be--or maybe, if they're lucky, they will. Praise for The Summer We Got Saved "Devoto's episodic, nonchronological structure creates potent narrative pull, but her evenhanded, affectionate treatment of her complex characters, each struggling to make sense of their changing world, is the novel's greatest asset." - Publisher's Weekly" A wonderfully poignant, funny, and intelligent book about coming of age and wisdom...completely delightful." Booklist (starred review) "In my opinion, you have created a winner ....took me back to the hopeful and yet fearful days ....of the early sixties. You caught perfectly that omnipresent feeling of menace we all had ....the feeling that anything could happen, but that we couldn't help but triumph eventually."-Dr. Scott Bates, Board of Directors, Emeritus, Highlander Center "Pat, this book resonates so much with me. I finished college in 1965 and went straight to work as a reporter for a Montgomery television station. The big story was civil rights, and one of the early events I covered was the crash of Ryan deGraffenreid's plane. So all this is familiar territory and brings back lots of memories. But what you've done goes far beyond that. If I had no personal connection at all, it would captivate me with your lovely telling." - Robert Inman, author of Captain Saturday. |
| OUT OF THE NIGHT THAT COVERS ME In Bainbridge, Alabama, eight-year-old John Gallatin McMillan lll has been the center of his mother's world, cloistered and pampered, until she unexpectedly dies. Taken away by his one remaining relative, his mother's sister, John soon learns that the new home awaiting him in Lower Peach Tree is a run-down tenant farm in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt. There he is thrust into al life alien to anything he has ever known, working long hours in the fields for his violent, alcoholic uncle. As John fights for his survival, he comes to identify with the struggles of the poor blacks he encounters, and imagines that his salvation lies in escape to Chicago, just as they feel their own survival depends on going north to a new life. Instead, a twist of fate brings him to The Bend, a black settlement that has become a refuge for outcasts. Here John meets Mama Tuway, a powerful black healer: Ella, a young mother damaged by the ravages of abuse: and Tuway, a man straddling the black and white cultures and leading a dangerous life. But none of them - or anyone in Lower Peachtree - will be ready for the brutal confrontation between blacks and whites, and how it will foreshadow the historic struggle about to sweep across the country. Praise for Out ot the Night That Covers Me "Wholly convincing....(John is) a terrific and totally believable little kid. From his point of view we see an entire society beginning to implode." - Washington Post Book World. “Written with grace and sympathy." -New York Times Book Review "Stunning....This lyrical, moving novel should establish Devoto as a great Southern novelist."-Library Journal A remarkably detailed look at life in Alabama's Black Belt....authentic details and pitch-perfect dialogue...This is the real deal." - Birmingham News |
| MY LAST DAYS AS ROY ROGERS In an Alabama town in the early 1950s during the last polio summer before the Salk vaccine, ten-year-old Tab is about to have the time of her life. Although movie theaters and pools have closed to stem the epidemic, Tab, a tomboy with a passion for Roy Rogers, still seeks adventure with her best friend Maudie May, "The lighest brown colored person" she knows. Now as they meddle with the local bootlegger - Mr. Jake - row out on the Tennessee River to land the biggest catfish ever, and snoop into the town's darkest secrets, Tab sets out to be a hero.... and comes of age in an unforgettable confrontation with human frailty, racial injustice and the healing power of love. Praise for My Last Days As Roy Rogers "Devoto writes beautifully......Like To Kill A Mockingbird, this book paints a distinctly Southern picture of friendship, justice, and the bond between outcasts." -St Petersburg Times "The literary love child of Harper Lee and Mark Twain....With such a delightful debut, her next appearance in print can't come too soon."- Booklist (starred review) "Engaging...graceful....(with)characters finely drawn...Devoto has an ear and eye for the vagaries of family and loyalty." -Denver Post "Offers up a huge, delicious helping of life, Southern style....Made me smile and, at times, laugh out loud." -Birmingham News |
