BookBrowse Reviews Red River: Combining family anecdotes with historical research and a rich imagination, Tademy crafts another American epic.

In her first novel, Cane River (2000), Lalita Tademy explored her mother's side of the family, inspired by the discovery of an 1850 bill of sale in the public records of Louisiana that recorded the purchase of her great-great-great-great-grandmother and seven family members.  Cane River was a huge success - an Oprah book club choice that spent 17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.  Now, Lalita is back with a novel based on her father's side of the family - a raw, visceral story plucked from a time and place in history that has been all but forgotten.

Her story opens in 1873 during "the scary time" of Reconstruction following the end of the American civil war.  The Tademy family and their neighbors are working with grit and determination to...