Event Details
Local Author Signing with Katherine Vaz
About this Event
Katherine Vaz, a former Briggs-Copeland fellow in fiction at Harvard University and a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, is the author of the novels Saudade, on the Discover Great New Writers list with Barnes & Noble, and Mariana, in six languages and optioned by Harrison Productions. Her collection Fado & Other Stories won a Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and Our Lady of the Artichokes & Other Portuguese-American Stories received a Prairie Schooner Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines, including Tin House, BOMB, Antioch Review, Iowa Review, The Common, Narrative, Ninth Letter, and Glimmer Train. She is the first Portuguese American to have her work recorded for the Archives of the Library of Congress (Hispanic division).
An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese
refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance
in Civil-War America.
“Vaz's work is gorgeous at every level—singing sentences and pull-you-in plot. She is the real thing, an American treasure.” —Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage
John
Alves, son of a famous Presbyterian martyr on the Portuguese island of
Madeira, spends his childhood in jail and in poverty. When he meets Mary
Freitas—though the adopted daughter of a master botanist, her true
lineage is the subject of dangerous rumor—a spark kindles a lasting
bond. But soon their families must confront the rising blood tide of
warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Fleeing with only what they
can carry, John and Mary are separated and arrive at different times and
places in a rapidly growing and changing mid-nineteenth-century
Illinois.
Years later, John settles into his life as an educator
at Jacksonville’s nationally renowned school for the deaf, and Mary is a
gardener in Springfield for handsome, wealthy Edward Moore. After John
and Mary reconnect, the home of rising politician Abraham Lincoln
provides a prime setting for their courtship. But conflict looms on the
horizon, and John is torn. Should he join the Union army to prove his
loyalty to his new country, or should he stay to fight for the chance to
make a life with the one he loves?
And should Mary accept
Edward’s marriage proposal since he is a partner in her business of
selling the miracle-berry fruit she transported from Madeira, or should
she choose her passion for John? Social jealousies and betrayals
compound the obstacles unleashed by the Civil War.
In poignant
and lyrical prose, Katherine Vaz’s Above the Salt is a captivating and
beautiful tribute to the power of true love and the sacrifices we make
to harness it.
Event Location
(631) 490-4287
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