Seeds of Magnolia by Bill Miller
From KIRKUS REVIEWS
From KIRKUS REVIEWS
In Miller’s debut historical novel set in the years before the Civil War, a Southern family learns to navigate the shifting boundaries of race, love, and history.
Austin Miller is a well-to-do slaveholder with thousands of acres to his name and slaves in multiple states. Among them are Elizabeth and her daughter, Sophia, who stay with Austin as he changes residences to keep up with his various pursuits, including politics and a law practice.
Household politics takes precedence over national politics, however; although Austin treats his slaves well, he’s marked by biases and paradoxes, as he wonders about slavery’s morality. (The moral questions become more pressing when it’s revealed that Sophia has become pregnant by her owner.)
Austin decides, despite his personal convictions, to fight for the South in the Civil War. His wife and slaves remain home at Magnolia Manor, where they later encounter Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman; the former seeks to take over the manor for war housing.
What makes this fictionalized account of a 19th-century American family unusual and noteworthy is that it represents the author’s attempt to come to grips with his heritage. In a fascinating personal note, author Miller explains that he’s the great-grandchild of the real-life Austin Miller and Sophia, making this novel a thorough imagining of his family’s past.
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