“In graceful prose, dotted with zingers and surprises, Jayne Moore Waldrop weaves a modern story of reconciliation and hope around this heartbreaking history. I’m impressed by her undaunted plunge into the subject and the compelling fiction she comes up with.”
—Bobbie Ann Mason, author of Dear Ann
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“Many of these narratives are steeped in a feminist sensibility, allowing readers to perceive events through the eyes of the marginalized. Central to all of the stories is Waldrop’s portrayal of the land, which she encapsulates in poetic descriptions and well-drawn characters.”
Drowned Town explores the multigenerational impact of loss of home and illuminates the joys and sorrows of a group of people bound together by monumental changes to the western Kentucky and Tennessee landscape. In the mid-twentieth century, giant lakes filled when the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers were dammed, submerging towns and dislocating people. More were forced out to make way for the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The interwoven narrative emphasizes the importance of sisterhood and family, both blood and created, and how we cannot separate ourselves from our places in the world.
Praise for DROWNED TOWN
"Through a counterpoint of interwoven narratives, Jayne Moore Waldrop has given us a vivid portrait of a particular place – far western Kentucky – over a period of half a century. Drowned Town is a story of loss and hope, of family and community, set on a lake and in the Land Between the Lakes, taking us from homesteads, to penitentiary, to lakeside mansion, and the affections and allegiances that transcend wrenching change. You will not forget these people, their dislocations, loyalties, love of land, love of home, sustaining love."
—Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek
"There is a fierce current of remembrance that pulses within these stories, which will not allow a Cumberland River community to be erased by water or time. Jayne Moore Waldrop is a very talented writer and in Drowned Town she vividly renders the human cost of what those in power call progress."
—Ron Rash, author of Serena
“Drowned Town is a tender, touching book about a thoroughly urbanized and cynical Louisville attorney shedding her prejudices about country life and ways to find love amid the watery landscapes of western Kentucky. As a backdrop for the developing romance, Jayne Moore Waldrop offers a tender portrait of women’s friendship, and poignantly evokes the countryside and towns before their flooding by the great TVA lakes.”
—Fenton Johnson, author of The Man Who Loved Birds