The Purchase

by Linda Spalding Narrated by Robin Miles

Overview

In this provocative and starkly beautiful historical novel, a Quaker family moves from Pennsylvania to the Virginia frontier, where slaves are the only available workers and where the family' s values and beliefs are sorely tested. In 1798, Daniel Dickinson, recently widowed and shunned by his fellow Quakers when he marries his young servant girl to help with his five small children, moves his shaken family down the Wilderness Road to the Virginia/Kentucky border. Although determined to hold on to his Quaker ways, and despite his most dearly held belief that slavery is a sin, Daniel becomes the owner of a young boy named Onesimus, setting in motion a twisted chain of events that will lead to tragedy and murder, forever changing his children' s lives and driving the book to an unexpected conclusion. A powerful novel of sacrifice and redemption set in a tiny community on the edge of the frontier, this spellbinding narrative unfolds around Daniel' s struggle to maintain his faith; his young wife, Ruth, who must find her own way; and Mary, the eldest child, who is bound to a runaway slave by a terrible secret. Darkly evocative, The Purchase is as hard-edged as the realities of pioneer life. Its memorable characters, drawn with compassion and depth, are compellingly human, with lives that bring light to matters of loyalty and conscience.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Singular. . . . A wonderful novel. . . . The realities of the characters, their fears and other emotions, are both individual and universal.” —John Irving

“Powerful. . . . Passages of pure poetry. . . . [Spalding’s] novel claws at the deepest nerve of American history.” —The Rumpus 

“Haunting and beautiful. . . . Brilliantly depicts the indelible stain that slavery has left on the moral fabric of America.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“Beautifully written, emotionally evocative, gripping, engaging, and truthful.” —The New York Journal of Books

“Engrossing. . . . One of the finest historical novels in recent years.” —National Post

“Eerily compelling. . . . Haunting. . . . Mesmerizing lyricism. . . . Imbued with the power of myth.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Grippingly immersive. . . . Visceral, emotionally resonant.” —The Toronto Star

“Impressively original. . . . Spalding shows a command of workaday historical detail. . . . [The] principal characters are complex, and cerebral. . . . This novel’s dual book-prize nominations are much deserved.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“With meticulous yet seamless attention to historical detail, Linda Spalding transports the reader to eighteenth-century Virginia in her mesmerizing novel. . . . The Purchase is an epic novel in every way that matters—in scope, depth, and heart.” —Jury Citation, Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

“In The Purchase, one man’s unsettling betrayal of his own moral code creates unforeseen ripples that sweep over multiple generations. Thanks to Spalding’s compassion and the singular brilliance of her narration, this transfixing novel weaves a tale that is both intimate in nature and, ultimately, huge in scope.” —Gil Adamson, author of The Outlander

“A poised and moving novel about the indignities of slavery and the moral stain at the inception of the American republic. The astonishing historical detail never detracts from the poignancy of the characters or the compelling narrative, which quickly swells into a drama of blood, betrayal and belonging.” —Caryl Phillips, author of A Distant Shore

“Spalding captures the grim particulars of slave life with unflinching yet restrained detail. . . . A serious, probing look at the interaction of character and environment during a seminal period in American history.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170938537
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	08/06/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Daniel looked over at the daughter who sat where a wife should sit. Cold sun with a hint of snow. The new wife rode behind him like a stranger while the younger children huddled together, coughing and clenching their teeth. The wind shook them and the wagon wounded the road with its weight and the river gullied along to one side in its heartless way. It moved east and north while Daniel and all he had in the world went steadily the other way, praying for fair game and tree limbs to stack up for shelter. “We should make camp while it’s light,” said the daughter, who was thirteen years old and holding the reins. But Daniel wasn’t listening. He heard a wheel grating and the river gullying. He heard his father – the memory of that lost, admonishing voice – but he did not hear his daughter, who admonished in much the same way.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Purchase"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Linda Spalding.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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