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  • The Tulip Poplars by Silas House book cover
  • The Tulip Poplars by Silas House book cover
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The Tulip Poplars

by Silas House

Love and convention across a changing century

$23.89 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Love and convention across a changing century

Set in the early 1900s, the novel begins with Amos and Tom falling in love while working in tobacco fields. Tom’s religious upbringing and family obligations complicate their relationship, while Maeve faces her own longing in a community shaped by racial divisions. The story spans most of the twentieth century and moves among New York City, Southern cities, and Appalachia. Its intertwined lives bring questions of faith, desire, race, class, and the cost of living within—or against—conventional expectations into focus. The publisher describes the novel as based on a story from the author’s family history.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical fiction spanning much of the twentieth century.
  • Readers seeking fiction that explores faith, sexuality, race, class, and social expectations.
  • Readers drawn to novels centered on intertwined lives and family history.

Themes

Forbidden love and desireFaith and doubtRace and classFamily responsibility and social conventionAppalachian and Southern history

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A sweeping historical novel about hidden, forbidden love in the early 1900s by bestselling writer and former poet laureate of Kentucky, Silas House.

"A masterful storyteller, House has crafted an ambitious and utterly beautiful love story so attuned to the minute moments in which a life can change." --Kevin Wilson, author of Run for the Hills

Amos and Tom fall in love while working in the tobacco fields during the hot summers of the early 1900s, yet Tom cannot shake his strict religious upbringing nor the responsibilities of his family's farm. His longtime friend Maeve also pines for a man she can't have, lest she endanger his already tenuous life in a town and world shaped by racial lines. How do you live a life that feels untrue, and at what point do you risk everything?

The Tulip Poplars is a gorgeous and moving novel spanning most of the 20th century, centering on four people trying to find happiness in a world that demands conventional choices. House tells a deeply intimate story of faith and doubt, race and class, sexual desire and the longing to be good when you've been taught that you are evil for loving who you love. Based on the story of an ancestor, House's new novel takes us from NYC to Southern cities to Appalachia and will leave you with a bigger heart.
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