The world of eight-year-old Cherry Laurel is an intensely sensual one - of cold noses, burning autumn leaves, changes of heart, childhood, nationhood . . . and betrayal.
Her mother, beautiful, free-spirited Bell and her father Jackson, a talented but troubled botanist, are failing to cope with the catastrophe of domestic life. Cherry's two younger sisters, Holly and Ivy, are sneezing and dancing around the house, worrying about bears and debt. Just another day in the life of your average Midwest, 1970s American family - citizens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, population 600,000.
But now Cherry has been volunteered for a "historical experiment". The city's notoriously racially segregated public school system is to pursue an active policy of Integration. Cherry and her younger sister are bussed in, unaware that the shame of white America awaits them.
Meanwhile, during the autumn of that upsidedown year, as Cherry attempts to learn the secret language of leaves, her parents' marriage falls to pieces. Jackson leaves his wife and kids to endure winter's blizzards on their own, while Cherry's only friend, the wistful Hugo, haunted by family tragedy, is determined to find his own lost father. His momma Macy just wants to hold it all together. She's on a mission to save herself and her son from the ghosts of the past.
'Father Lands' is the story of family forces, absent fathers and the pain of history. In this stunning debut novel, Emily Ballou proves herself to be one of the most exciting and original new voices in contemporary literature.
