Het werk van Katy Simpson Smith duikt in de complexiteit van menselijke relaties en maatschappelijke structuren, vaak door een historische bril. Haar schrijfstijl kenmerkt zich door scherpzinnig inzicht in de motivaties van personages en een nauwgezette weergave van vroegere tijdperken. De auteur verweeft vakkundig historische gebeurtenissen met persoonlijke verhalen, en onderzoekt hoe het verleden individuele levens vormgeeft. Haar literaire bijdragen bieden lezers boeiende en tot nadenken stemmende leeservaringen.
Set in 1788 Alabama, the story intertwines the lives of three men: Cat, a troubled white man grappling with his past; Bob, a loquacious black man escaping the horrors of slavery; and Istillicha, a man driven by a desire for revenge after losing his place in Creek society. As their paths cross in the southern woods, themes of trauma, freedom, and power dynamics emerge, highlighting the complexities of their individual struggles and the historical context of their time.
Two women, connected across time, edge toward transgression in pursuit of their desires.A Mississippi woman pushes through the ruin of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. She has escaped her life, apprenticed herself to catalog all the species growing in this place. Crawling along the stones, she wonders how she has landed here, a reluctant botanist amid a snarl of tourists in comfortable sandals. She hunts for a scientific agenda and a direction of her own.In 1855, a woman pushes through the jungle of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. As punishment for her misbehavior, she has been indentured to the English botanist Richard Deakin, for whom she will compile a flora. She is a thief, and she must find new ways to use her hands. If only the woman she loves weren’t on a boat, with a husband. But love isn’t always possible. She logs 420 species.Through a list of seemingly minor plants and their uses—medical, agricultural, culinary—these women calculate intangible threats: a changing climate, the cost of knowledge, and the ways repeated violence can upend women’s lives. They must forge their own small acts of defiance and slip through whatever cracks they find. How can anyone survive?Lush, intoxicating, and teeming with mischief, Katy Simpson Smith’s The Weeds is a tense, mesmerizing page-turner about science and survival, the roles women are given and have taken from them, and the lives they make for themselves.
"Spanning two thousand years, The Everlasting follows four characters whose struggles resonate across the centuries: an early Christian child martyr; a medieval monk on crypt duty in a church; a Medici princess of Moorish descent; and a contemporary field biologist conducting an illicit affair. Outsiders to a city dense with history, this quartet separated by time grapples with the physicality of bodies, the necessity for sacrifice, and the power of love to sustain and challenge faith. Their small rebellions are witnessed and provoked by an omniscient, time-traveling Satan who, though incorporeal, nonetheless suffers from a heart in search of repair. As their dramas unfold, each must decide what it means to be good. As these conflicted people struggles with forces they cannot control, their circumstances raise a profound and timeless question at the heart of faith: What is our duty to one another, and what will God forgive?"--Page 4 of cover
Set in 1788 Alabama, the story follows three men from different backgrounds: Cat, a white man grappling with emotional scars; Bob, a talkative black man escaping the horrors of slavery; and Istillicha, a man driven by a desire for revenge after losing his leadership in a Creek town. Their paths intersect in the southern woods, highlighting themes of survival, identity, and the quest for justice amidst the complexities of their intertwined lives.
North Carolina um 1800: Helen wächst als Tochter eines Plantagenbesitzers behütet auf, doch ihre Mutter starb bei ihrer Geburt, der Vater ist zerfressen von Schuldgefühlen. Helen ist stark und unabhängig, bringt den Sklaven auf der Plantage das Alphabet bei und kümmert sich mehr und mehr um die väterlichen Geschäfte. Von Heirat hält sie nichts, sämtliche Verkupplungsversuche ihres Vaters schlagen fehl. Aber dann taucht John auf, ein einfacher Soldat ohne Herkunft, und noch ehe Helen weiß, wie ihr geschieht, entbrennt sie in Liebe zu ihm. Der Vater verweist ihn des Hauses, und so bleibt den beiden nur das Meer als Ort für ihre Liebe, sie heuern auf einem Schiff an und befahren ein ganzes Jahr den Ozean – doch als Helen ein Kind erwartet, müssen sie zurück an Land und sich der Realität stellen … Katy Simpson Smith hat einen gewaltigen Roman geschrieben über Hingabe und Verlust, Leben und Tod, über die bedingungslose Liebe einer Frau zu einem Mann und eines Vaters zu seiner Tochter.
