ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
Little, Brown, 2014
ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE is bestselling author Breena Clarke’s new novel: a gripping story of survival and adventure impeccably framed in history. This panoramic chronicle of freedom and its price, and of true-to-life characters with “the moxie to make a way from no way,” will resonate with readers from the first word to the last.
Dossie Bird, a young girl born into bondage on an island off the coast of Maryland, journeys north to freedom via steamer, canal barge, and on foot. She is rescued by an enigmatic, captivating mountain man who takes her to the remote fictional town of Russell’s Knob in New Jersey, a community based on actual nineteenth-century Mid-Atlantic maroon societies, where blacks, whites, and reds intermarried and lived in relative harmony for generations.
Dossie’s new home is a defiant refuge for those who would be free and stay that way, where she finds momentous connection but must also endure harrowing violence. Soon, Dossie is forced to emancipate herself from her charismatic husband and leave the highlands for the streets of New York City, where she is swept up in the city’s dangerous excitement as the Civil War looms. Filled with ripe, resonating characters, this meticulously researched and deeply felt novel reminds the reader that all people, regardless of race or gender, are equally capable of truly heroic and truly inglorious acts to insure their survival.
With the same storytelling brio that distinguished the acclaimed novels RIVER, CROSS MY HEART and STAND THE STORM, Breena Clarke weaves the richly dramatic story of one woman’s triumph in the crucible of history.
Breena Clarke grew up in Washington, D.C., and was educated at Howard University. For ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE, she drew inspiration from the tales and legends of the settlers of the Ramapo Mountains, not far from her home in New Jersey. Breena Clarke is the author of RIVER, CROSS MY HEART -an Oprah’s Book Club selection and New York Times bestseller which has sold more than 700,000 copies- and STAND THE STORM.