Sitting in St. James

<p><strong>Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award!</strong></p><p><strong>7 starred reviews! </strong>M<strong>onumental. --<em>Booklist </em>(starred review) * A marathon masterpiece.--<em>Kirkus </em>(starred review) * Necessary.--<em>SLJ </em>(starred review) * Shocking and dramatic.--<em>Shelf Awareness </em>(starred review) * Mesmerizing confounding and vividly rendered.--<em>Book Page </em>(starred review) * Williams-Garcia's storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic.--<em>Horn Book </em>(starred review)</strong></p><p>This astonishing novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork--empathetic brutal and entirely human--and essential reading for both teens and adults grappling with the long history of American racism.</p><p><em>1860 Louisiana</em>. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided in spite of her family's objections to sit for a portrait.</p><p>While Madame plots her last hurrah stories that span generations--from the big house to out in the fields--of routine horrors secrets buried as deep as the family fortune and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts.</p><p>Rita Williams-Garcia is one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has been honored with the Children's Literature Lecture Award from the American Library Association. </p>