'An amazing book... In the same way that you don't have to be an Irish man to feel the aching poverty or classism depicted in Angela "s Ashes, or a black woman to understand the abuses Celie speaks of in The Color Purple, so too does Cane River speak to us all about the resiliency of the human spirit, in the face of what would seem to be unbearable suffering' New York Times
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Set among the lush, swampy plantations of deepest Louisiana, Cane Rivet follows the lives of four generations of women from the time of slavery in the early 1800s, through the American Civil War and into the pre-civil rights South.
From down'trodden, philosophical Suzette, who came into womanhood as a slave, to educated, pale-skinned Emily, whose high ambitions born in freedom became her downfall,these remarkable women's struggles the tragedy of slavery and, ultimatdy, the triumph of the human spirit.
This deeply personal saga is the result of many years of exhaustive research into the author's own family story. Evocative, powerful and absolutely unforgettable, Cane Rivet introduces a brilliant new voice into the ranks of bestselling American literature.