The Shade Tree

By: Theresa Shea

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Paperback | 1 December 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
300 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
15.2 x 22.8 x 2.5

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Winner of the 2020 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction and The 2022 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

When the lies of thirteen-year-old Ellie Turner cause a black man's lynching in 1930s Florida, her younger sister Mavis begins to question the family's long-held beliefs about race. At the same time, the novel focuses on the courageous story of Sliver, a black midwife whose love for her grandson forces her to flee to Washington DC with the child, and Mavis, in tow. As the novel progresses through the decades, the lives of the three women merge and troubling family secrets are revealed.

The Shade Tree is a dramatic exploration of racial injustice and conflict set against the backdrop of some of America's most turbulent historical events. The lives of two white sisters and a black midwife are inextricably linked through a series of haunting tragedies, and the characters must make difficult, life-changing decisions about where their loyalties lie: with their biological families or with a greater moral cause. From a Florida orange grove to the seat of power in Washington, DC, during the height of the civil rights movement, The Shade Tree tells a sweeping yet intimate story of racial discrimination and the human hunger for justice.

Industry Reviews

"An emotional, complex work that presents difficult, important questions at a high level of craft." -- Guernica Prize Jurors Cyril Dabydeen, Margo LaPierre, and Matt Murphy
"In its account of almost half a century in the lives of two white Southern sisters and of the African Americans whose experiences are inextricable from their, The Shade Tree is brutally personal, heartbreakingly political - and remarkably written. Theresa Shea has combined boldness and subtlety with swaths of compassion to come up with a novel that's both complicated and ferociously clear." -- Joan Barfoot, Booker and Scotiabank Giller prizes nominee, and author of Abra, Luck, and Critical Injuries
"In her nuanced portrait of families riven by race and sex, Theresa Shea offers a searing indictment of Jim Crow's corrosive influence that, if unleashed and unquestioned, can make monsters of us all. Beautifully and unflinchingly written, this is a novel for our times." -- Terry Gamble, Author of The Water Dancers, Good Family, and The Eulogist

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