Apr 25, 2011
This debut novel takes a slightly different look at plantation life at the turn of the 19th Century. At its onset, Lavinia, a seven-year-old orphaned Irish indentured servant, is taken to live with black slaves in the Kitchen House of a Virginia tobacco plantation. She is put under the care of Belle, the illegitimate daughter of the plantation owner. She embraces Belle and the other slaves as her family. Later she is accepted into the white world of the “big house,” and finds herself torn in her love and loyalties. The narration of the book alternates between Lavinia and Belle, providing