On Jan. 7, 2010, Viking will release All The Days Past, All the Days to Come (9780399257308; $19.99; ages 14 and up) by the Newberry Award-winning author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor.
In her 10th book, Taylor completes her sweeping saga featuring the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Cassie Logan, introduced in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston and, ultimately, in the 1960s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration.
Cassie is witness to now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north; the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, preceded and precipitated by the racist society of America; and the often-violent confrontations that brought about change. Rich, compelling storytelling is Taylor’s hallmark, and she exceeds expectations as she brings to a close the stirring family story that has absorbed her for more than 40 years. It is a deeply personal story, and one she was born to tell.
Publishers Weekly has hailed the new novel as an “absorbing historical novel … a memorable heroine and her keen sense of injustice propel this satisfying conclusion to a landmark family saga.” The book has also received a rave review from Booklist: “A brilliant dramatization of Black life in America during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. Taylor is unsparing in her depiction of the years of segregation and of the Black experience of white racism, bigotry, and injustice. Written in a spare, unadorned style that matches the material and propels the narrative forward, this never-didactic book is irresistibly readable, while the richly realized, highly empathetic characters are unforgettable. Taylor’s remarkable novel is, in sun, that rare exception: an absolutely indispensable book.” And Kirkus said of All the Days Past, All the the Days to Come: “A heart-stopping plot about a character whose life has always been defined by her family and their land. … In this Logan swan song, Taylor is at her best.”
Taylor is the author of 10 novels, including The Road to Memphis, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, The Land, The Well, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Her books have won numerous awards, among them a Newberry Medal (for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry), four Coretta Scott King Awards and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Her prequel to the saga, The Land, was awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize and the PEN Award for Children's Literature. In 2003, the author was named the First Laureate of the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature.
