Review: A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House

A Parchment of Leaves

Silas House

Copyright © Silas House

★★★★★

Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Algonquin Books - First Print

Pages: 285
Publishing Date: August 16, 2002

Description: Set in 1917, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES tells the story of Vine, a beautiful Cherokee woman who marries a white man, forsaking her family and their homeland to settle in with his people and make a home in the heart of the mountains. Her mother has strange forebodings that all will not go well, and she's right. Vine is viewed as an outsider, treated with contempt by other townspeople. Add to that her brother-in-law's fixation on her, and Vine's life becomes more complicated than she could have ever imagined. In the violent turn of events that ensues, she learns what it means to forgive others and, most important, how to forgive herself.

As haunting as an old-time ballad, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES is filled with the imagery, dialect, music, and thrumming life of the Kentucky mountains. For Silas House, whose great-grandmother was Cherokee, this novel is also a tribute to the family whose spirit formed him.

Author Bio: Please view Silas House's biography HERE.

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I cannot begin to tell you everything I loved about this book. Like many of my other book purchases, I was drawn in by the cover. The woods. The leaves that have fallen. The fog. It paints such a picture in my mind. I can imagine myself standing and looking down that road. I can feel the sense of peace, trepidation, and coziness.

What the cover didn't convey, the story did. I connected with Vine on so many levels. I could stand in her shoes and view the world through her eyes. This story brought me to tears. Of course, knowing that the extraction of the Cherokee people was brought on by greed and the history of the Appalachian mountains made this story resonate so much more in my soul. Above that, it made me feel the sense of pride in being Appalachian with a Cherokee ancestry. House did an amazing job.

If you would like to read this book, I highly recommend it. Silas House has a wonderful voice. You will not be disappointed.

All information of this book has been taken from the Amazon page for A Parchment of Leaves. I do not own any copyright. I received nothing in compensation for this review.