Nathan Harris Author Talk and Book Signing

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Sweetness of Water comes a gripping story about a brother and sister, emancipated from slavery but still searching for true freedom, and their odyssey across the deserts of Mexico to escape a former master still intent on their bondage.New Orleans, 1866. The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico, where he hoped to escape the new reality of the postbellum South. Coleman stayed behind in Louisiana to serve the Harper family, clinging to the hope that one day June would return.When an unexpected letter from Mr. Harper arrives, summoning Coleman to Mexico, Coleman thinks that finally his prayers have been answered. What Coleman cannot know is the tangled truth of June’s tribulations under Mr. Harper out on the frontier. And when disaster strikes Coleman’s journey, he is forced on the run with Mr. Harper's daughter, Florence. Together, they venture into the Mexican desert to find June, all the while evading two crooked brothers who'll stop at nothing to capture Coleman and Florence and collect the money they're owed. As Coleman and June separately navigate a perilous, parched landscape, the siblings learn quickly that freedom isn't always given—sometimes, it must be taken by force.As in his New York Times bestselling debut The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris delves into the critical years of the Civil War’s aftermath to deliver an intimate and epic tale of what freedom means in a society still determined to return its Black citizens to bondage. Populated with unforgettable characters, Amity is a vital addition to the literature of emancipation.

Sure to be one of the biggest historical fiction books of the year, Amity uses its protagonists' episodic journeys across vast geographical and cultural distances to offer a panoramic view of the profundity and complexity of racial subjugation. Nathan Harris has delivered a follow-up in the same rich vein as his breakout hit The Sweetness of Water, exploring another unexamined pocket of history in the aftermath of the Civil War.With its rich, Southern setting (from Louisiana to Mexico) and the vividly rendered perspectives of a memorable sibling duo on separate journeys to reunite with one another and escape their former master, Amity explores the contradictions and inadequacies inherent in emancipation for Black Americans -- themes that resonate powerfully in our present day.“Nathan Harris proves once again that he is one of the greatest literary minds of our generation. Harris employs such careful, balanced storytelling, crafting a novel that is at once harrowing and gentle, dangerous but romantic. Amity is a deeply adventurous and astonishingly beautiful book.”—Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets, a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction"I fell into this stunning novel as into another world, with the shock of encountering something truly original. An epic tale of a budding genius pulled through the borderlands, AMITY is harrowing, often beautiful, and deeply moving.”—Andrea Barrett, author of SHIP FEVER and NATURAL HISTORY"To call Nathan Harris's Amity a standout novel doesn't do it enough justice. The writing is flawless, the characters unforgettable and, most importantly, the story the world Harris builds never lets us go. A brilliantly executed book."—Jason Mott, National Book Award Winning author of Hell of a Book

Nathan Harris is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Sweetness of Water, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, the winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and longlisted for the Booker Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. He holds an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas, and lives in Chicago.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

1030 Elysian Fields Ave, 1030 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, United States