On a moonless night in the spring of 1851, a young slave makes a bid for freedom with only the North Star to guide him in a stunning new work of historical fiction from bestselling novelist and historian Robert Morgan. In Chasing the North Star, Morgan brings to full and vivid life the story of a runaway slave named Jonah Williams, who, on his eighteenth birthday, flees the South Carolina plantation on which he was born with only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the clothes on his back. No shoes, no map, no clear idea of where to head, except north, hiding during the day and running through the night. Although Jonah eludes the men sent to capture him, the one person who never loses his trail is Angel, a slave girl he meets in North Carolina, remarkably free in spirit, who sees Jonah as her way to freedom and sets out to follow him. Morgan's clear, simple prose brings an urgency and authenticity to this spellbinding story of two teenage...

When Robert Morgan’s novel Gap Creek was published in 1999, it became an Oprah Book Club Selection and an instant national bestseller, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers to its story of a marriage begun with love and hope at the turn of the twentieth century. Set in the Appalachian South, it followed Julie and Hank Richards as they struggled through the first year and a half of their union.But what, readers asked, of the years that followed? What did the future hold for these memorable characters?The Road from Gap Creek holds the answers to these questions, as Robert Morgan takes us back into their lives, telling their story and the stories of their children through the eyes of their youngest daughter, Annie. Through Annie, we watch as the four Richards children create their own histories, lives that include both triumphs and hardship in the face of the Great Depression and then World War II. Much more than a sequel, The Road from Gap Creek is a moving and indelible portrait of people and their world in a time of unprecedented change, an American story told by one of our country’s most acclaimed writers. 

Ginny, who marries Tom at the turn of the century after her family has given up on her ever marrying, narrates THE TRUEST PLEASURE--the story of their life together on her father's farm in the western North Carolina mountains. They have a lot in common--love of the land and fathers who fought in the Civil War. Tom's father died in the war, but Ginny's father came back to western North Carolina to hold on to the farm and turn a profit. Ginny's was a childhood of relative security, Tom's one of landlessness. Truth be known--and they both know it--their marriage is mutually beneficial in purely practical terms. Tom wants land to call his own. Ginny knows she can't manage her aging father's farm by herself. But there is also mutual attraction, and indeed their "loving" is deeply gratifying. What keeps getting in the way of it, though, are their obsessions. Tom Powell's obsession is easy to understand. He's a workaholic who hoards time and money. Ginny is obsessed by Pentecostal preaching. That she loses control of her dignity, that she speaks "in tongues," that she is "saved," seem to her a blessing and to Tom a disgrace. It's not until Tom lies unconscious and at the mercy of a disease for which the mountain doctor has no cure that Ginny realizes her truest pleasure is her love for her husband. Like COLD MOUNTAIN, the time and place of THE TRUEST PLEASURE are remote from contemporary American life, but its rendering of the nature of marriage is timeless and universal. Praise for THE TRUEST PLEASURE: "Marvelously vivid imagery. . . . a quietly audacious book."--The New York Times Book Review; "Morgan deeply understands these people and their world, and he writes about them with an authority usually associated with the great novelists of the last century. . . . the book is astonishing."--The Boston Book Review;

As the War for Independence wore on into the 1780s, unrest ruled the Carolinas. Settlers who had cleared the land after the Cherokees withdrew were being mustered for battle as British forces pillaged their hard-won farms. Robert Morgan's stunning novel tells a story of two people caught in the chaos raging in the wilderness.After sixteen-year-old Josie Summers murders her abusive stepfather, she runs away from home disguised as a boy. Lost in the woods, she accepts a young preacher's invitation to assist in his itinerant ministry. Eventually her identity is revealed and affection grows between the two. But when the preacher is kidnapped by British soldiers, Josie disguises herself once again and joins the militia in a desperate attempt to find him. Brave Enemies is a page-turning story of people brought together by chance and torn apart by war—a story of enduring love and of the struggle to build a homeland.

As the War for Independence wore on into the 1780s, unrest ruled the Carolinas. Settlers who had cleared the land after the Cherokees withdrew were being mustered for battle as British forces pillaged their hard-won farms. Robert Morgan's stunning novel tells a story of two people caught in the chaos raging in the wilderness.After sixteen-year-old Josie Summers murders her abusive stepfather, she runs away from home disguised as a boy. Lost in the woods, she accepts a young preacher's invitation to assist in his itinerant ministry. Eventually her identity is revealed and affection grows between the two. But when the preacher is kidnapped by British soldiers, Josie disguises herself once again and joins the militia in a desperate attempt to find him.Brave Enemies is a page-turning story of people brought together by chance and torn apart by war—a story of enduring love and of the struggle to build a homeland.

Jessica Ronky Haddad Style Weekly Transports readers directly to the wild and forgotten mountains of North Carolina and to the secret, hopeful places in a young man¹s heart. From the author of Gap Creek‹the international bestseller and winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for fiction‹comes the gripping story of two brothers struggling against each other and the confines of their 1920s Appalachian Mountain world. Muir and Moody Powell are as different as Jacob and Esau. Muir is an innocent, shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea of what to do about them. Moody, the older, wilder brother, takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother. Through it all, their mother, Ginny, tries to steer them right, while dealing with her own losses: her husband, her youth, and the fiery sense of God that had once ordered her world. When Muir discovers his purpose in life, the consequences are far-reaching and irrevocable: a community threatens to tear itself apart and his family is forever changed. This Rock is the most ambitious and accomplished novel yet from an author whose sentences ³at their finest . . . burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank Williams¹s best songs² (The New York Times Book Review). ³Homespun pleasure.² ‹Nelson Taylor, Providence Journal ³Hell-bent and excellent . . . I can¹t shake the first scene. . . . resonant . . . moving.² ‹Katherine Whittemore, The New York Times Book Review ³Morgan¹s prose is sharp and saturated with details . . . [imbued] . . . with a sort of lyrical sheen . . . both moving and spiritual.² ‹Michael Paulson, Bookpage Robert Morgan, the author of the award-winning novel Gap Creek, is a native of the North Carolina mountains, where he was raised on land settled by his Welsh ancestors.From Publishers WeeklyThis coming-of-age tale is rather like a Cain and Abel saga, set in the Carolinas in the early '20s. Ginny, a widow, raises her children on prayer and homily. Moody, her older son, is a lazy, cynical bad boy who grows into a whoring, alcoholic bootlegger. His brother, Muir, in contrast, is self-flagellating and guilt-ridden. He bumps his way down life's river, but his faith always seems to lead him to salvation. Morgan, author of last year's Gap Creek (an Oprah selection), fleshes out this family's story in a predictable but satisfying manner. While his tale develops with mounting drama, the production of this version does not do it justice. Alexander has the difficult job of reading the passive mother's dialogue; she often sounds like she's on tranquilizers. And Clotworthy tries hard for feeling, but gets bogged down in reading long, overly detailed descriptions with little connection to the narrative. Thus, the audio version disappoints, depriving listeners of the best of Morgan's sensitive work. Based on the Algonquin Books hardcover (Forecasts, Aug. 27). (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalMorgan here continues the story of the Powell family, begun in The Truest Pleasure (LJ 8/95) and continuing with the best-selling Gap Creek (LJ 9/1/99), an Oprah selection. Some 20 years after the events in Gap Creek, Muir and his ornery older brother, Moody, struggle with each other; with their widowed mother, Ginny; and with the rural Southern community where they live. Muir, not yet 20, is on a quest to find his life's work: does he have a true calling as a preacher? Ultimately, through the catalysts of two seemingly unrelated deaths, he conceives of a project that in turn reveals his life's true purpose. Though Morgan still pursues his favorite theme, the redeeming power of work, his new book is both more ambitious and more uneven than Gap Creek. Not a lightweight Bildungsroman, this novel instead illuminates the painful movement from boy to man. As such, it might not satisfy earlier Morgan readers, but libraries will definitely want this. Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.