'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma

I enjoyed the complexity, because we often think it’s a Black/white dichotomy in America and that has never really been true. There is something right and very resonant about history always chasing us. And, of course, what happened in the Caribbean ended up happening in continental North America and the United States. I felt like history, in some sense, was itself a character.

I really wanted to explore what the world looked like at this time, and what impact the colonial powers had on this very small island in the middle of the Caribbean. Because ultimately, there are so many people that intersect in this novel. I was thinking about a story of migration and community, and this world of multiculturalism. I wasn’t sure that this thing that’s happening to us now was actually going to happen, but on some level it’s always been happening. Watch the full interview here and browse related resources for librarians, including recommended similar titles.Īlthough Book of the Little Axe is a historical novel set in the 1800s, it strikes me as being really timely because it illustrates the complexities of race relations then and through to this very day. This is a compelling saga of family bonds, ambitions, and desires, all subject to the vagaries of powerful historical forces.”īush interviewed Francis-Sharma about this original and compelling saga. In her starred Booklist review on April 15, Vanessa Bush writes: “Francis-Sharma offers fascinating characters across the broad sweep of the American continent at a time of great tumult: warring colonial powers, the spread of slavery, and expansion West. All public libraries in the US with OverDrive subscriptions will be able to lend unlimited ebook copies of Book of the Little Axe September 14–28.Ī historical novel set in Trinidad in 1796 and the Crow Nation of the Great Plains in 1830, Francis-Sharma’s second novel (after ‘Til the Well Runs Dry) follows the struggles and adventures of Rosa Rendón, who pushes back against the restraints associated with her sex and race, ultimately marrying a Crow chief and having a son who must learn her secrets to become wholly himself. The latest Libraries Transform Book Pick, an award presented by Booklist and the American Library Association in partnership with OverDrive, is Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma (Grove Atlantic, April).

This interview was first published in Booklist’s August 2020 issue.

Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Book of the Little Axe Photo: Anna Carson DeWitt

'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma