Description: A sweeping historical novel about hidden, forbidden love in the early 1900s by bestselling writer and former poet laureate of Kentucky, Silas House.
"A masterful storyteller, House has crafted an ambitious and utterly beautiful love story so attuned to the minute moments in which a life can change." --Kevin Wilson, author of Run for the Hills Amos and Tom fall in love while working in the tobacco fields during the hot summers of the early 1900s, yet Tom cannot shake his strict religious upbringing nor the responsibilities of his family's farm. His longtime friend Maeve also pines for a man she can't have, lest she endanger his already tenuous life in a town and world shaped by racial lines. How do you live a life that feels untrue, and at what point do you risk everything? The Tulip Poplars is a gorgeous and moving novel spanning most of the 20th century, centering on four people trying to find happiness in a world that demands conventional choices. House tells a deeply intimate story of faith and doubt, race and class, sexual desire and the longing to be good when you've been taught that you are evil for loving who you love. Based on the story of an ancestor, House's new novel takes us from NYC to Southern cities to Appalachia and will leave you with a bigger heart.Review Quotes: "The Tulips Poplars is a great big orchestra of a book--it's a story that is tiny and epic, ancient and new, local and global all at the same time. It's a song of repair at a time when we need to heal. It's also a brave book, and transgressive in the very best sense. Pulling the strayed strands of America together, Silas House manages to compose a narrative that recognizes the importance of every small and glorious note of our lives."--Colum McCann, author of Twist