A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
How the prose reads.
A stopped train brings strangers to Caline's rural home, leaving her curious about the world beyond it.
A young man is pushed out of the only home he has known after his guardian dies.
A young mother at a Louisiana plantation sees her husband's love vanish as rumors spread about their baby.
A traveler finds an old acquaintance trapped in an abusive marriage in a remote Louisiana cabin.
A planter's challenge to a segregated school sends its teacher to New Orleans, where their conflict follows her.
An enslaved young woman refuses the marriage her mistress has chosen and falls in love with another man.
Sent to work for a Louisiana family, a young Indigenous woman longs for the woods but grows attached to their baby.
At Easter, a carpenter notices a poor young woman whom the village has overlooked.
Pélagie saves for decades to rebuild the plantation house lost in the war, while her sister lives beside its ruins.
A poor market worker supports an older woman from the family he once served.
On her way to Mass, a girl stays with an elderly neighbor whom no one else can tend.
A plantation worker sets out for a week of visiting and stops at a sick boy's cabin.
A young man pretends to be ill, leaving his godmother to handle work meant for him.
A woman who has never wanted children must care for a neighbor's four youngsters.
An older woman refuses to leave the house she was given when freed from slavery.
A little girl offers lilies to a furious neighbor after her calf damages his crops.
When her French village empties under British rule, a young hunter must decide where she belongs.
A solitary narrator turns from people to the quiet of a summer night.
A traveler with a broken buggy is mistaken for a soldier who never came home for Christmas.
A young emissary enters hostile Florence with a plea that could alter a kingdom's fate.
A reckless English volunteer joins Greek fighters and survives a battle beside their grieving young leader.
A Neapolitan officer's secret mission makes him a stranger to everyone he loves.
A banished young Sienese entrusts his sister to the rival who toppled their family.
An embattled French countess seeks a dream that will decide whether she can forgive the man she loves.
