Daughter of my people by
James Kilgo

Nominated by:

In this extraordinary debut novel, the acclaimed essayist James Kilgo has woven a richly textured and complex tale from the threads of actual events. Set in rural South Carolina in the eary twentieth century, Daughter of My People is the story of the ties of land, blood, and honour that bind and threaten to destroy two families. At the center of the story are two brothers, Hart and Tison Bonner, and their cousin Jennie Grant, the mixed-race woman one brother loves and the other dishonors. Theirs is a world in which dark passions lead to tragic consequences. The burden of understanding that promises redemption and victory over the destructive forces of ignorance and prejudice rests on the shoulders of Jennie. A shadowy but prominent figure in the stories passed down to Kilgo, Jennie here is given her due. Her strength and dignity, the driving forces of this novel, shine through the generations with the glow of heirloom sterling. Kilgo is a sensory writer, bringing the landscape alive with an abundance of sights, sounds, and smells. He writes with a resonance that draws the reader in and does not let go until long after the last page has been turned. "This is a love story," he says. "And I hope it breaks the reader's heart as mine was broken in the telling of it."
James Kilgo is a professor of English at the University of Georgia in Athens. He is the author of two essay collections, Deep Enough for Ivorybills and Inheritance of Horses (both available as Georgia paperbacks).

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Daughter of my People:

This story has many themes running through it. It is a love story of two brothers in love with the one woman - their coloured cousin Jenny, who is the illegitimate daughter of their uncle. The younger brother Hart and Jenny have been lovers for many years. At sixty-three, the older brother Tyson discovers a lust for Jenny for the first time in his life, which Jenny rejects. Hart finds out, murders Tyson, and when he realises he is the main suspect, commits suicide. The story is set in South Carolina around 1910, and tells of racial prejudices and tensions at that time. It was a criminal offence for white people to have any romantic associations with coloured people. The romance of Jenny and Hart had to be secret. The family suspected their affair, but there was an unspoken understanding that they could only meet in Jenny's cabin after dark or when no-one was around. When Hart died, the Klu Klux Klan visited the family looking for Jenny. The family protected her, but also betrayed her by sending her away. All the characters in the book are credible and well portrayed. The girl Jenny has great dignity, even when Tyson, the least attractive of the characters, seems to feel he could love this girl. Hart comes across as a warm, loving man. The other characters, who are related to Hart and Jenny, have a diversity of personalities that one would expect in most families. The other beauty of the book is its descriptions of the landscape and the wildlife. There are amazing passages in the book, such as the wild turkey fight, or deer hunting or even the almost sacred ritual of butchering the dead body of a deer. For this author it is his first novel. I felt enriched by the experience of reading it. I loved the story, the characters and his descriptions of the world the characters inhabited. I think this book should be a serious contender for the IMPAC Prize.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)