GRACE AMONG THE LEAVINGS by Beverly Fisher

“‘Sometimes it’s hard to know who your enemies are. Or your friends,’ says the young narrator of Beverly Fisher’s beautifully written novella, GRACE AMONG THE LEAVINGS. That young narrator, Grace herself, speaks with the wisdom of innocence, telling the story of her family’s heartbreaking struggle during the Civil War. Fisher’s story speaks to the young person in all of us, though it never condescends in the writing or the content. This is a deeply moving story, one not given to easy resolution, just as the issues of that long ago war—slavery, self-determination, the privileges of class—defy a complete resolution even today.” —BARRY KITTERMAN, award-winning author of From the San Joaquin: Stories

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“‘This is Grace,’ readers are told when the protagonist of GRACE AMONG THE LEAVINGS is introduced to the plantation owner whose age-old mandates she questions. With a child’s simple reasoning, Beverly Fisher’s narrator enacts the stalwart sweetness of being called to the treetops, where she seems to sit, dandelion fluff in her hair, measuring the world against a farm’s laws of sacrifice and impermanence while men and women war against each other inside the home and out of it.” —AMY WRIGHT, author of The Garden Will Give You a Fat Lip

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"Set in Tennessee during and after the Civil War, Beverly Fisher’s GRACE AMONG THE LEAVINGS reveals the painful effects of war – on soldiers, and, more importantly, their families.

Narrated by Grace, an independent and feisty young girl, the novella focuses on the tension created by her confusion over the contradictions in the world around her. As the plot unfolds, a series of shocking revelations leave Grace bewildered by the behavior of those she loves, and in the end, she, and the reader, are left with unresolved questions about forgiveness and redemption, but certain that war brings only great human suffering.

Not just a period piece, this novella is filled with subtly suggested parallels to our time, or anytime, since war is ever-present in human history.” —MALCOLM GLASS, author of Bone Love