Solitude Singing

Solitude Singing offers a fictional account of the experiences of a nineteenth century Virginian family drawn west by the purported bounty of Kentucky. The novel opens at the edge of the Western frontier, where Lilburne Lewis, a nephew of Thomas Jefferson, has relocated in an attempt to re-establish the Lewis family dynasty. Lilburne’s son Jamieson, however, has different notions about prosperity, and resists his father’s exhortations to become the latest in a long line of slave owners. When George, a family slave, vanishes the night of the first of the New Madrid earthquakes, three massive shocks that rock the Mississippi River Valley in late 1811 and early 1812, the conflict between Lilburne and Jamieson crystallizes. In the months that follow George’s disappearance, the earthquakes continue to plague the region and, ultimately, reveal the extent of the break within the Lewis family.