In the small town of Bellwether, where prejudice and judgment prevail, five harrowing life paths collide and a saga of survival, defiance, and unyielding human spirit unfolds.
Winner of the Hawthorne Prize, 2024
Broughman has created an American epic, a grand story that stretches across land and water, time and race, gender and religion. ... as characters go off to war, flee to cities, and escape the terrors of slavery, we encounter the awesome forces of mercy, hope, even forgiveness. Broughman's prose sweeps from achingly tender to brutal and bare-knuckled, his prowess managing multiple voices and tensions. ...brazenly beautiful writing. ?John Mauk, author of Field Notes for the Earthbound
"Chad Broughman's debut novel is as beautiful as it is brutal, a tale of small-minded evil and redemption set in post-Civil War America. The Fall of Bellwether left me feeling like I'd just read a horror story wrapped in a lullaby. It's a page-turner that will stick with me forever." New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Donovan, Take A Chance on Me
The fictional town of Bellwether is home to complicated characters whose lives are forever entangled and whose stories Broughman weaves together with vivid detail and great care. This complex novel does not shy away from the evil that can emerge from narrow-minded communities and their false piety and prejudices, but in these pages, too, a reader will find sophisticated understanding and remarkable grace.
?Patricia Ann McNair, author of Responsible Adults
... dystopian in scope and yet closer to home than we'd like to believe. Here is America: from slavery to the Civil War to the Great Chicago Fire, from brothels to mining camps to church pulpits. The Fall of Bellwether shows how even the most hopeless can be redeemed, and just when all seems lost, true treasure is found.
?Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone
..Juxtaposed with the beautiful woods of the upper peninsula of Michigan, this historical novel follows multiple, intertwined, dark and poignant story lines which each illuminate the complexities of enslavement in all of its forms. The lessons it teaches are those still desperately needed today. ?Patti Eddington, author of The Girl with Three Birthdays: An Adopted Daughter's Memoir of Tiaras, Tough Truths and Tall Tales
