Books: Nowhere Else On Earth

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The residents of Scuffletown, as described by Rhoda Strong, its most famous daughter and this novel's indomitable narrator, "are the very type He listed among those preferred to inherit the earth." Like Rhoda, most who live in this swampy 19th century North Carolina settlement are descendants of the region's native Indians and pawns to both armies during the waning days of the Civil War. With fluid writing, nuanced characters and a suspenseful pace, Humphreys blends historical romance with a meditation on the ambiguities of race and morality.

--By Michele Orecklin