A Shout in the Ruins - Paperback
Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers
From Kevin Powers, the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds, comes this sweeping historical novel set in Virginia. A Shout in the Ruins spans over a century of American history, from the antebellum South through the Civil War and into the 1980s, examining the brutal legacy of violence and exploitation that shaped the nation.
Multi-Generational Story of Beauvais Plantation
The novel centers on Beauvais Plantation outside Richmond, Virginia, where the lives of enslaved people, plantation owners, and their descendants intersect across generations. Master Anthony Levallios recognizes that power in post-war America will be measured in industry and capital rather than tobacco fields worked by enslaved labor. His vision sets in motion consequences that ripple through the decades.
At the heart of the story are Nurse and Rawls, two people enslaved at Beauvais who overcome impossible odds to be together, only to question whether they will live to see the freedom they've been promised. A wounded Confederate veteran struggles to comprehend a transformed world, while his daughter finds herself trapped in a marriage to Levallois that resembles imprisonment more than partnership.
George Seldom's Search for Origins
Interwoven with the Civil War narrative is George Seldom's story, an orphan of that conflict looking back from the 1950s on his lost childhood. As the government demolishes his Richmond neighborhood to build an interstate highway, George travels south with a young woman named Lottie to find the place he once called home. His journey becomes a reckoning with more than 90 years spent witnessing both the changes and stubborn continuities of 20th century America.
The story follows Lottie into the 1980s as she navigates middle age, confronting life's disappointments and joys while grappling with the same questions that haunt every character: How do we live in a world built on others' suffering? Can love exist where violence has been the strongest form of intimacy for 400 years?
From the Author of The Yellow Birds
Kevin Powers brings the same emotional intensity, harrowing realism, and poetic precision that made The Yellow Birds a celebrated literary achievement. Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award, Powers draws on his Richmond upbringing and military service in Iraq to craft this unflinching examination of American history.
This paperback edition from Back Bay Books demands readers reckon with the moral weight of America's troubling past while cementing Powers' place at the forefront of contemporary American literature.
Set in Virginia during the Civil War and a century beyond, this novel by the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds explores the brutal legacy of violence and exploitation in American society. Spanning over one hundred years, from the antebellum era to the 1980's, A Shout in the Ruins examines the fates of the inhabitants of Beauvais Plantation outside of Richmond, Virginia. When war arrives, the master of Beauvais, Anthony Levallios, foresees that dominion in a new America will be measured not in acres of tobacco under cultivation by his slaves, but in industry and capital. A grievously wounded Confederate veteran loses his grip on a world he no longer understands, and his daughter finds herself married to Levallois, an arrangement that feels little better than imprisonment. And two people enslaved at Beauvais plantation, Nurse and Rawls, overcome impossible odds to be together, only to find that the promise of coming freedom may not be something they will live to see. Seamlessly interwoven is the story of George Seldom, a man orphaned by the storm of the Civil War, looking back from the 1950s on the void where his childhood ought to have been. Watching the government destroy his neighborhood to build a stretch of interstate highway through Richmond, he travels south in an attempt to recover his true origins. With the help of a young woman named Lottie, he goes in search of the place he once called home, all the while reckoning with the more than 90 years he lived as witness to so much that changed during the 20th century, and so much that didn't. As we then watch Lottie grapple with life's disappointments and joys in the 1980's, now in her own middle-age, the questions remain: How do we live in a world built on the suffering of others? And can love exist in a place where for 400 years violence has been the strongest form of intimacy? Written with the same emotional intensity, harrowing realism, and poetic precision that made The Yellow Birds one of the most celebrated novels of the past decade, A Shout in the Ruins cements Powers' place in the forefront of American letters and demands that we reckon with the moral weight of our troubling history.Contributor(s)
Author
Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Returns accepted within 30 days of purchase.
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers
From Kevin Powers, the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds, comes this sweeping historical novel set in Virginia. A Shout in the Ruins spans over a century of American history, from the antebellum South through the Civil War and into the 1980s, examining the brutal legacy of violence and exploitation that shaped the nation.
Multi-Generational Story of Beauvais Plantation
The novel centers on Beauvais Plantation outside Richmond, Virginia, where the lives of enslaved people, plantation owners, and their descendants intersect across generations. Master Anthony Levallios recognizes that power in post-war America will be measured in industry and capital rather than tobacco fields worked by enslaved labor. His vision sets in motion consequences that ripple through the decades.
At the heart of the story are Nurse and Rawls, two people enslaved at Beauvais who overcome impossible odds to be together, only to question whether they will live to see the freedom they've been promised. A wounded Confederate veteran struggles to comprehend a transformed world, while his daughter finds herself trapped in a marriage to Levallois that resembles imprisonment more than partnership.
George Seldom's Search for Origins
Interwoven with the Civil War narrative is George Seldom's story, an orphan of that conflict looking back from the 1950s on his lost childhood. As the government demolishes his Richmond neighborhood to build an interstate highway, George travels south with a young woman named Lottie to find the place he once called home. His journey becomes a reckoning with more than 90 years spent witnessing both the changes and stubborn continuities of 20th century America.
The story follows Lottie into the 1980s as she navigates middle age, confronting life's disappointments and joys while grappling with the same questions that haunt every character: How do we live in a world built on others' suffering? Can love exist where violence has been the strongest form of intimacy for 400 years?
From the Author of The Yellow Birds
Kevin Powers brings the same emotional intensity, harrowing realism, and poetic precision that made The Yellow Birds a celebrated literary achievement. Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award, Powers draws on his Richmond upbringing and military service in Iraq to craft this unflinching examination of American history.
This paperback edition from Back Bay Books demands readers reckon with the moral weight of America's troubling past while cementing Powers' place at the forefront of contemporary American literature.
Set in Virginia during the Civil War and a century beyond, this novel by the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds explores the brutal legacy of violence and exploitation in American society. Spanning over one hundred years, from the antebellum era to the 1980's, A Shout in the Ruins examines the fates of the inhabitants of Beauvais Plantation outside of Richmond, Virginia. When war arrives, the master of Beauvais, Anthony Levallios, foresees that dominion in a new America will be measured not in acres of tobacco under cultivation by his slaves, but in industry and capital. A grievously wounded Confederate veteran loses his grip on a world he no longer understands, and his daughter finds herself married to Levallois, an arrangement that feels little better than imprisonment. And two people enslaved at Beauvais plantation, Nurse and Rawls, overcome impossible odds to be together, only to find that the promise of coming freedom may not be something they will live to see. Seamlessly interwoven is the story of George Seldom, a man orphaned by the storm of the Civil War, looking back from the 1950s on the void where his childhood ought to have been. Watching the government destroy his neighborhood to build a stretch of interstate highway through Richmond, he travels south in an attempt to recover his true origins. With the help of a young woman named Lottie, he goes in search of the place he once called home, all the while reckoning with the more than 90 years he lived as witness to so much that changed during the 20th century, and so much that didn't. As we then watch Lottie grapple with life's disappointments and joys in the 1980's, now in her own middle-age, the questions remain: How do we live in a world built on the suffering of others? And can love exist in a place where for 400 years violence has been the strongest form of intimacy? Written with the same emotional intensity, harrowing realism, and poetic precision that made The Yellow Birds one of the most celebrated novels of the past decade, A Shout in the Ruins cements Powers' place in the forefront of American letters and demands that we reckon with the moral weight of our troubling history.Contributor(s)
Author