From slavery through abolition and women's suffrage, Thaddeus' sweeping story of four generations of mothers and daughters carries the reader away, down the Mississippi River on a keelboat, beneath the tunneling branches of the Natchez Trace, into the shanties and mansions of the Old South, into a bygone time that both unsettles and delights. Thaddeus is a master of atmospheric settings and striking characters who reveal both the sin and the redemption of the American soul.
--Elaine McCullough, Professor Emerita of English, Ferris State University