About This Book
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
From
prize-winning author Bobbie Ann Mason, a brilliantly wrought novel about the
first woman to give birth to quintuplets in early 1900s America.
Set
in the apocalyptic atmosphere of 1900—a time when many Americans were looking
for signs foretelling the end of the world—Feather Crowns is the
story of a young woman who unintentionally creates a national sensation. A farm
wife living near the small town of Hopewell, Kentucky, Christianna Wheeler
gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in North America.
Christie
is suddenly thrown into a swirling storm of public attention. Hundreds of
strangers descend on her home, all wanting to see and touch the "miracle
babies." The fate of the babies and the bizarre events that follow their
births propel Christie and her husband far from home, on a journey that exposes
them to the turbulent pageant of life at the beginning of the modern era.
Richly
detailed and poignant, Feather Crowns focuses on one woman but
opens out ultimately into the chronicle of a time and a people. Written in
Bobbie Ann Mason's taut yet lyrical prose, the novel ranges from a peaceful
farming community to a fire-and-brimstone revival camp, from traveling shows to
the the nation's capital. Moving through the center of it all is Christie, a
charming, headstrong, loving woman who struggles heroically to come to terms
with the extraordinary events of her long life.
Feather Crowns is an American parable of profound
resonance. Spellbindingly readable, it is a novel of classic stature that
confirmed Bobbie Ann Mason as one of America's most important writers.
