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An explosive and emotional story of four siblings―each fighting their own personal battle―who return home in the wake of their father's death in order to save their family's home from being sold out from under them, from the author of One Summer in Savannah.
"Don't let the white man take the house."
These are the last words King Solomon says to his son before he dies. Now all four Solomon siblings must return to North Carolina to save the Kingdom, their ancestral home and 200 acres of land, from a development company, who has their sights set on turning the valuable waterfront property into a luxury resort.
While fighting to save the Kingdom, the siblings must also save themselves from the secrets they've been holding onto. Junior, the oldest son and married to his wife for 11 years, is secretly in love with another man. Second son, Mance, can't control his temper, which has landed him in prison more than once. CeCe, the oldest daughter and a lawyer in New York City, has embezzled thousands of dollars from her firm's clients. Youngest daughter, Tokey, wonders why she doesn't seem to fit into this family, which has left an aching hole in her heart that she tries to fill in harmful ways. As the Solomons come together to fight for the Kingdom, each of their façades begins to crumble and collide in unexpected ways.
Told in alternating viewpoints, Long After We Are Gone is a searing portrait on the power of family and letting go of things that no longer serve you, exploring the burden of familial expectations, the detriment of miscommunication, and the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children.
Excerpt
Long After We Are Gone
People who don't live here call it the Solomon Plantation after the original owner, John Solomon, who built it in 1782. The locals, including his siblings, call it the Kingdom, in honor of King Solomon, Mance's father, and every firstborn son in the Solomon family. Even for eighteenth-century architecture, the house has a heft and audacity that is striking. A fortress. Too impractical, too big for every iteration of the Solomon family who has lived here.
Mance looks in the direction of the workshop and contemplates his and King's day, set to begin in a few hours. Normally, he doesn't know what King will have him doing. But today, he knows.
The front of the Kingdom is sagging. More specifically, the second-floor porch now droops, the old columns, last replaced a hundred years ago, no longer able to shoulder the weight of the roof. Thanks to a recent hurricane, the entire facade of the house, not just the second-floor porch, would have collapsed if not for the ...
Here are some of the comments posted about Long After We Are Gone.
You can see the full discussion here.
Each of the siblings makes some pretty questionable choices. Do you think they all redeem themselves in the end?
Each of the siblings makes some pretty questionable choices. Do you think they all redeem themselves in the end? - kimk
How did each of the four siblings grow and change throughout the course of the book in your view? Was there one sibling whose story or struggles particularly resonated with you?
How did each of the four siblings grow and change throughout the course of the book in your view? Was there one sibling whose story or struggles particularly resonated with you? - kimk
How did each of the siblings feel about their relationship to the family property, in your opinion? Were they all equally impacted by the family’s history on the land? Did that change by the end of the novel?
How did each of the siblings feel about their relationship to the family property, in your opinion? Were they all equally impacted by the family’s history on the land? Did you find that it changed by the end of the novel? - kimk
How do you see the effects of intergenerational trauma playing out among each of the characters? Do you think they were successful in breaking the "Solomon curse"?
How do you see the effects of intergenerational trauma playing out among each of the characters? Do you think they were successful in breaking the "Solomon curse"? - kimk
How do you think accepting the money might have changed things for each of the siblings? In what ways would their lives be better, and in what ways, worse?
When Junior puts the check on the table in front of his siblings, he thinks the money can change their lives for the better. "And for the absolute worse." How do you think accepting the money might have changed things for each? In ... - kimk
Erica Bauermeister, New York Times bestselling author of No Two Persons
A big, beautiful, devastating, and ultimately hopeful novel. Etaf Rum, New York Times bestselling author of A Woman is No Man and Evil Eye
Explosive and emotionally charged. Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author ofThe House Girl and The Last Romantics
A tour de force of history, injustice, and the brutal, beautiful everlasting ties of family.
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