A Parchment of Leaves (Ballantine Reader's Circle) Summary and Reviews

A Parchment of Leaves (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Silas House

A Parchment of Leaves (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $6.87
You Save: $8.13 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.59 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Silas House
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-26
ISBN: 0345464974
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Book Reviews of A Parchment of Leaves (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Book Review: "To just be--that's the most noble thing of all"
Summary: 4 Stars

"I had always found comfort in leaves, in their silence. They were like a parchment that holds words of wisdom," says Vine, the protagonist of Silas House's 2002 novel A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES. In the early 1900s, in the midst of WWI, Vine is a young Cherokee woman growing up with her family in Redbud Camp, a Native American settlement in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky. Rumors throughout the area posit Vine as a witch, a mystical woman who can kill with her beauty and make snakes dance at her command. These whisperings keep outsiders away from Redbud Camp--until one day, a brave young Irishman named Saul Sullivan and his younger brother, Aaron, march fearlessly up the mountain. After Aaron is bitten by a snake on the mountain, and Vine saves him, an immediate connection between herself and Saul is forged. Soon after, they are married, and she moves down the mountain, away from her family and into a world she doesn't know, taking with her only a yearling redbud tree to remind her of home.

Saul's mother, Esme, welcomes Vine unquestioningly--as do her surrounding neighbors, including Serena, a midwife who becomes a fast friend. But Vine struggles with missing her family; even the daughter she births, Birdie, cannot fill the void left by her family's absence. When the lumber company Saul works for sends him to another county to chop down trees to help with the war effort, Vine's loneliness deepens.

Adding to Vine's unease is Aaron's growing obsession with her, a fixation so overpowering that it leads him to marry a woman named Aidia whose resemblance to Vine is eerie. Aaron's brooding desperation for Vine culminates in one frightful night that unequivocally changes Vine's life forever and leads to the theme that is central to House's novel: forgiveness.

A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES, while somewhat light on plot, is nevertheless a vibrant novel. House is a master storyteller; his prose is forthright and gentle, fierce and flowing. A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES is a doorway into another time and place: Appalachia in 1917, a time when technology battles with the old ways daily; a place relunctantly embracing the present while at the same time trying desperately to hold onto the past. House's characters thrum with life; his descriptions of the Kentucky mountains sing with beauty and nobility. In A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES, House takes readers into a lost world of proud, strong people, whose faith and capacity for forgiveness is severely tested over and over again. It is a haunting, lovely, old-fashioned little novel, and one definitely worth reading.

Historical Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novel ImagePirate Latitudes: A Novel
by Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops: $27.99
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel ImageThe Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Last Witchfinder: A Novel ImageThe Last Witchfinder: A Novel
by James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $25.95
Zorro ImageZorro
by Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.17
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Hot Kid: A Novel ImageThe Hot Kid: A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1) ImageThe Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)
Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3) ImageBones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)
by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
March ImageMarch
by Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Emperor (Emperor 1) ImageEmperor (Emperor 1)
by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earring ImageGirl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
One Foot in Eden: A Novel ImageOne Foot in Eden: A Novel
by Ron Rash
Picador; Published: 2003-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.22
Price in other shops: $14.00
Strange as This Weather Has Been: A Novel ImageStrange as This Weather Has Been: A Novel
by Ann Pancake
Shoemaker & Hoard; Published: 2007-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $16.95
God: Stories ImageGod: Stories
Mariner Books; Published: 2003-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.42
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Dollmaker ImageThe Dollmaker
by Harriette Arnow
Scribner; Published: 2009-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.64
Price in other shops: $17.00
Fair and Tender Ladies ImageFair and Tender Ladies
by Lee Smith
Berkley Trade; Published: 2011-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.25
Price in other shops: $15.00
Serena: A Novel (P.S.) ImageSerena: A Novel (P.S.)
by Ron Rash
Ecco; Published: 2009-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.99
River Of Earth ImageRiver Of Earth
by James Still
The University Press of Kentucky; Published: 1978-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.41
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Coal Tattoo: A Novel ImageThe Coal Tattoo: A Novel
by Silas House
Ballantine Books; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.55
Price in other shops: $15.00
Eli the Good ImageEli the Good
by Silas House
Candlewick; Published: 2011-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.30
Price in other shops: $7.99
Clay's Quilt (Ballantine Reader's Circle) ImageClay's Quilt (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Silas House
Ballantine Books; Published: 2002-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops: $15.00