Sometimes the truth is found in a folktale.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families who come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide, a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend—and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost—someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.
Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families who come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide, a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend—and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost—someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.
Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.
- Historical women’s fiction
Stand-alone novel
Book length: approximately 120,000 words
Includes discussion questions for book clubs
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"THE FABLED EARTH is lush and vivid, with passages so beautiful they will break your heart and then turn around and mend it. The lines blur between magic and mystery, pulling you into a dreamy, immersive experience. It's a tour de force of a novel. You can always tell a born storyteller when you read one. And Kimberly Brock is the real deal." - Sarah Addison Allen
"Kimberly Brock's THE FABLED EARTH is a brilliantly layered, unforgettable story of memory, myth, and found family. Off the coast of Georgia, on Cumberland Island, three separate women search for belonging in the wake of incomprehensible loss. Weaving a stunning Southern landscape, Gilded Age glamour, and the societal turmoil of the late 1950s, Brock takes readers on an epic journey that conjures the longing of forgotten youth while simultaneously reminding us of its dangers. I have never read a novel where the author's love of storytelling shines more brightly than this one." - Lynda Cohen Loigman
"THE FABLED EARTH follows three women in 1952 who are trying to escape the ghosts of their pasts. Set in dual historical timelines, the novel flashes back to 1932 where the wild beauty of Cumberland Island is juxtaposed against the encroaching opulent wealth of the families of the Gilded Age. Soon, these two worlds collide tragically with the burning of Thomas Carnegie's Dungeness Mansion. A magical read full of secrets, the writing is lush and full of lore and mystery. THE FABLED EARTH is as gorgeous, twisty, and tangled as Cumberland Island itself. Kimberly Brock has established herself as one of the most exciting voices in Southern literature today." - Constance Sayers
"Kimberly Brock's THE FABLED EARTH is a brilliantly layered, unforgettable story of memory, myth, and found family. Off the coast of Georgia, on Cumberland Island, three separate women search for belonging in the wake of incomprehensible loss. Weaving a stunning Southern landscape, Gilded Age glamour, and the societal turmoil of the late 1950s, Brock takes readers on an epic journey that conjures the longing of forgotten youth while simultaneously reminding us of its dangers. I have never read a novel where the author's love of storytelling shines more brightly than this one." - Lynda Cohen Loigman
"THE FABLED EARTH follows three women in 1952 who are trying to escape the ghosts of their pasts. Set in dual historical timelines, the novel flashes back to 1932 where the wild beauty of Cumberland Island is juxtaposed against the encroaching opulent wealth of the families of the Gilded Age. Soon, these two worlds collide tragically with the burning of Thomas Carnegie's Dungeness Mansion. A magical read full of secrets, the writing is lush and full of lore and mystery. THE FABLED EARTH is as gorgeous, twisty, and tangled as Cumberland Island itself. Kimberly Brock has established herself as one of the most exciting voices in Southern literature today." - Constance Sayers
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