Search - Four Spirits

I read this book because I loved Ahab's Wife. What a tale! Set in Birmingham in the early '60s, Jeter weaves wonderful characters into her story to bring the civil rights struggle to life.

This was one of the best books I read all year in 2004. Set in Birmingham AL in 1963, it connects the stories of several families and generations as they confront and struggle through this watershed year of the civil rights movement.

This was a really good book, a little slow getting started but as I recall so was Ahab's Wife ( same author). If you enjoyed AW, you'll enjoy this. She has a wonderful way about her writing that puts you right in the middle of the action. This is painfully accurate of the south in the early-late 60s; integration, segregation, murders, fear, terrorism of our own people on our own soil. very passionate book

A wonderful historical novel! Sena Jeter Naslund does an excellent job of blendng real historical events with fictional characters. Although some events in this novel are also fictional, they are factual in depicting the horrors of the early 1960's in Alabama. For anyone who is old enough to remember the Civil Rights movement, this novel will stir memories of events you saw on the evening news. For those who are too young to have experienced that era, you will get a feel for what it was like. The author writes with great character development. The story is told through the points of view of several of the characters. It's a long book, but reads fairly quickly because of the multi-character narrative style. This is a story that will make you think. There is so much that we take for granted now concerning human rights. This book makes us realize that we have come a long way...but there still is a long road yet to travel.