Quakertown

In Quakertown, award-winning author Lee Martin travels back to 1920s Texas to tell the story of a flourishing black community that was segregated from its white neighbors-and of the remarkable gardener, Little Washington Jones, who was asked to make a heartbreaking choice. Based on a true story, Quakertown draws on the rich texture of the South-of the Pecan Creek running along the edges of the town, the spectacular and rare white lilac, and the rising racial tensions that bubble under the surface and threaten to tear neighbors apart. With rare skill and compassion, Lee Martin carves out the delicate story of two families-one white and one black-and the child whose birth brings a gift of forgiveness. "A consistently impressive and often dazzling new novel. In his richly dramatic re-imagining of the events behind Quakertown's demise, Lee Martin has written one of the finest novels of the year." (Jabari Asim, The Washington Post)