Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton - #bookreview

 

In the coming year of our Lord, the 1852 Farmer's Almanac predicted four eclipses, three of the moon, one of the sun. It said nothing of torrential rain. No prophecies of muddied fields or stalks of cotton so waterlogged and beaten down the bolls grazed the earth.

By the time the hot Texas sun made its return, glaring its indiscriminate and wanton gaze, it was much too late. The cotton wouldn't mature, instead choosing to rot right there, the bolls refusing to open. It held back the white wooly heads that were so much in demand, and instead relinquished a dank fungal smell that remained trapped in the air for weeks.

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An intimate look at the domestic lives of enslaved women, Night Wherever We Go is an evocative meditation on resistance and autonomy, on love and transcendence and the bonds of female friendship in the darkest of circumstances.

On a struggling Texas plantation, six enslaved women slip from their sleeping quarters and gather in the woods under the cover of night. The Lucys―as they call the plantation owners, after Lucifer himself―have decided to turn around the farm’s bleak financial prospects by making the women bear children. They have hired a “stockman” to impregnate them. But the women are determined to protect themselves.

Now, each of the six faces a choice. Nan, the doctoring woman, has brought a sack of cotton root clippings that can stave off children when chewed daily. If they all take part, the Lucys may give up and send the stockman away. But a pregnancy for any of them will only encourage the Lucys further. And should their plan be discovered, the consequences will be severe.

Visceral and illuminating, Night Wherever We Go marks the arrival of a bold, lyrical and powerful new voice in fiction.

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This book is set in Texas in 1852 where six enslaved women are faced by the prospect of being impregnated by a 'stockman', brought to the plantation by its owner in order to increase his slave numbers and rescue his failing plantation. 

It put me in mind of The Handmaid's Tale, albeit one is set in the future and this  is set in the past. However, both deal with the issue of the forced impregnation of women. At least, we can hold out hope that the future will not bring anything even approaching this very disturbing image. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the past and any book which deals with such a bleak time in history does not make for easy reading.

However, what elevates this book is the close friendship the women form in order to protect themselves from pregnancy and consequently deny the plantation owner his aim. 

There are some very powerfull scenes in this book. However, the camaraderie between the six women and the small chinks of light they are able to find in their lives make for an excellent read. The author is a gifted storyteller and writes with conviction and confidence.

Ms. Peyton has given us an excellent debut novel and if this is anything to judge by then she is one to watch. 

ISBN: 978 0008532840

Publisher:  The Borough Press

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback

No. of Pages:  304

About the Author:

Tracey Rose Peyton received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas-Austin and her BA from Howard University. She’s an alum of VONA/Voices, Callaloo, The Writer’s Institute at CUNY, Sackett Street, and Tinhouse and has received fellowships from Hedgebrook and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, Best American Short Stories 2021, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

(author photo and bio. info courtesy of the author's website https://www.traceyrosepeyton.com/about)