The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson

Book excerpt: "Drunken Bride, Texas, April 1875. Writing furiously in a jail cell in the days leading up to his hanging, former slave Persimmon "Persy" Wilson's last wish is to set the record straight. He may be guilty, but not of what he stands accused: the kidnapping and rape of his master's wife. Fifteen years earlier, Persy had been sold to Sweetmore, a Louisiana sugar plantation, alongside a striking young house slave named Chloe. Persy and Chloe arrive bound together in chains, a circumstance out of which is forged a perilous love affair and dreams of escape. But on the eve of the Union Army's takeover of New Orleans, an outraged and jealous Master Wilson shoots Persy and flees with Chloe and his other slaves to Texas. So begins Persy's epic journey, a sweeping tale that takes readers from the sweltering exhaustion of plantation life to the final battles of the Civil War, from the isolation and bitter cold of the Texas frontier to the brutal yet life-affirming ways of the Comanche warriors who show Persy what it means to control one's own destiny. Facing unimaginable hardship in his quest to find Chloe -- the sole silver lining of an awful past -- Persimmon gradually regains the dignity and selfhood that years of brutal subjugation had eroded. Perfect for fans of Cold Mountain and The Invention of Wings, this is the moving testimony of a man whose remarkable odyssey reveals the power of love and the depth of the human spirit"--Publisher's description.