Overview

Long: Yet in the Land of the Living, a work of contemporary/historical fiction, takes us into protagonist GRACE STOREY'S deep dive into dual mysteries about her great-great-grandfather and a contemporary soldier injured in Iraq. Grace's search arises both out of empathy and an attempt to come to terms with her own devastating losses of her mother, brother, and husband. The novel is structured around Grace's interpretation of her ancestor's Civil War letters to his waiting wife in order to find the ""truth"" of not only the past but in the meaning of life and death. Thematically about the journeys we take in order to deal with suffering and tragedies, the novel offers alternative versions of the climatic events as Grace continues to recast meaning and herself, gaining strength through her search and discoveries. Although her grief from cascading personal losses initially makes her feel unable to cope, she comes out stronger for having explored those emotional landscapes, landscapes symbolic of the country's wars with itself. In her state of melancholy, she becomes emotionally detached from her husband who walks out on her. Working through an unexpected divorce in the midst of reflections on death and the meaning of life, Grace's search takes her into a cache of her great-great-grandfather's Civil War letters. Reading the letters begins as a diversion and then turns into revelations. Reconstructing identity is one of the themes of this novel on levels both personal and societal in scale. The stories Grace examines are suggested through other voices she imagines, in addition to hers. Among important characters are badly wounded Iraq war vet TIM FITZGERALD, whom Grace meets during her volunteer work at the VA. Their relationship grows into something unexpected. In the course of their developing friendship, she is simultaneously looking into the mystery of what happened to her ancestor, Civil War soldier EZRA CROSS and why he never returned home from the war. As Grace considers possible outcomes for the great-great grandfather, we find Cross repeatedly boarding a train for home, each time with an altered destiny Grace construes for him. The letters Grace studies are actual Civil War artifacts belonging to the author and acknowledged in the manuscript epigraph. All other aspects of the work, including the characters' names and outcomes, are fiction. Grace is connected to both of these American soldiers in vastly different times and wars-one by blood and the other by choice-as she becomes stronger and no longer emotionally paralyzed. The stories are representative of the American landscape damaged by profound losses through wars, both internal and external. The title of the novel, as well as chapter headings, are lines taken from the Civil War soldier's letters home to his wife Susa, uncovered by the reader as Grace reads each one during her research. Yet in the Land of the Living is structured around Grace's pursuit and interpretation of her ancestor's letters in order to find the ""truth"" of not only the past but in the meaning of life and death. Thematically about the journeys we take in order to deal with tragedies, the novel offers alternative versions of the climatic events as Grace continues to recast meaning and herself.

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9781950251247

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Reviews

In this exceptionally crafted novel, Nancy Avery Dafoe seamlessly blends a nuanced historical analysis and a deeply moving narrative about the impact of war, the ache of loss, and the power of renewal. Central to the plot is a cache of letters Dafoe's great, great grandfather sent to his wife while he served in the Union forces during the Civil War. Susa's letters to her husband have not been preserved. Grace Storey, a middle-aged graduate student, is using Ezra's letters as the basis for her dissertation. As she deciphers the lines he writes home, Grace finds echoes of Susa, and the letters become a window into the experiences of this waiting wife as well as helping solve a mystery. Throughout the book, Dafoe deftly weaves threads of the past, present, and future and gives voice to unseen, unheard women in our male-dominated history and in contemporary society. Braiding together her cast of characters' experiences of bereavement, she creates a compelling account of loss and mourning in a deeply affecting story about renewing and rebuilding life. Like her central character, Dafoe has remarkable abilities as a storyteller. Yet in the Land of the Living is not to be missed. You will remember this poignant, powerful narrative of self-discovery long after you finish it. Mary Lynch Kennedy, Ph.D., Distinguished Teaching Professor, Emeritus, and author of Writing in the Disciplines: A Reader for Writers, with William J. Kennedy, and Theorizing Composition, A Critical Sourcebook of Theory and Scholarship in Contemporary Composition Studies, among others.

Author Information

Author/educator Nancy Avery Dafoe has 16 published books. In addition to her novel Yet in the Land of the Living, her most recent work includes a poetry book collaboration with Mississippi artist Jamie Tate: Got Some River in Us (FLP, 2026); a poetry collection focused on man's responsibility to the Earth-When Mine Canaries Stop Singing (FLP, June 2024), a memoir Unstuck in Time (PWP, 2021), and a literary novel Socrates is Dead Again (PWP, 2022) which earned the gold award from the Human Relations Indie Book Awards in 2023. Unstuck in Time won the Director's Choice Award in 2023 from Human Relations Indie Books. Her poetry has won national awards, including the William Faulkner/Wisdom Creative Writing Award (2016). Her prose short stories have also won national awards, including the New Century Writer contest. The Central New York writer has also written a memoir, An Iceberg in Paradise. about her mother's Alzheimer's and its effect on the family (SUNY Press, 2015). Her contemporary fable/novella Naimah and Ajmal on Newton's Mountain (FLP) joins her other fiction work, including three mystery novels in the Vena Goodwin series: You Enter a Room, Both End in Speculation, and Murder on Ponte Vecchio (RPP). Her other poetry books include The House Was Quiet, But the Mind Was Anxious (FLP, 2022); Innermost Sea; and Poets Diving in the Night (FLP). In addition, Dafoe has written books on educational policy and teaching writing, published through Rowman & Littlefield Education (now Bloomsbury): Breaking Open the Box, The Misdirection of Education Policy, and Writing Creatively. Her short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction work appears in a number of anthologies, including Lost Orchard (SUNY Press) and Lost Orchard II (PWP); NY Votes for Women: A Suffrage Centennial Anthology (Cayuga Lake Books); Birdsong; Earth Care: Environment Problems and Possible Solutions; From the Finger Lakes, a Memoir Anthology (Cayuga Lake Books), and in journals and literary magazines. Dafoe has taught English and writing in a variety of settings, including high school, community college, and workshops.

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