The Evening Road

2017 | Fiction & Poetry

'A strange, dazzling novel, as audacious as it is lyrical, that hauls up insight, sorrow, and even - somehow - wit from the well of American history.' EMMA DONOGHUE


'A vivid, disturbing book, able to subvert itself in half a line, constantly challenging the reader's expectations. Its ghost map is quickly established in the reader's head, and as the characters fade into the margin of the final page, it is as if an inner landscape has altered. It is mature, accomplished, impressive.' HILARY MANTEL

‘You can’t tell me you haven’t heard.’
‘Heard what?’
‘About the lynching over in Marvel.’
‘The what?’

Meet Ottie Lee Henshaw. Quick of mind and pleasing to the eye, she navigates a stifling marriage, a lecherous boss, and on one day in the summer of 1920, an odyssey across the countryside to witness a dark and fearful celebration.

Meet Calla Destry. A young black woman desperate to escape a place where the stench of violence hangs heavy in the air, and to find the lover who has promised her a new life.

Every road leads to the bedlam of Marvel. There are buses laid on and Klan members gathering. On the road lives will collide and be changed forever. The Evening Road is the story of two remarkable women on the move through an America riven by fear and hatred, eager to flee the secrets they have left behind.

Laird Hunt (Author)