Provinces of Night

In 1999 William Gay's debut novel The Long Home signaled the arrival of a bold new voice in American fiction. In a rave review in the New York Times Book Review, Tony Earley wrote, "In the high tradition of the Southern novel, Gay is unafraid to tackle the biggest of the big themes, nor does he shy away from the grand gesture that makes those themes manifest," and the Denver Post heralded it as "a novel of great emotional power."

With PROVINCES OF NIGHT, Gay's talent is undeniable. The year is 1952, and E. F. Bloodworth has returned to his home--a forgotten corner of Tennessee--after twenty years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the reverence his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can poison a man's soul. Fleming, a seventeen-year-old dreamer, interprets this seemingly stark world with the uncynical wit and wisdom of the young. When he encounters Raven Lee, a sloe-eyed beauty from a neighboring town, he slowly finds the courage to face this family curse.

In a tale redolent with the crumbling loyalties and age-old strife of the South, Gay's characters inhabit a world driven by blood ties that strangle as they bind.