An “intimate and revelatory” (Tom Perrota) novel—based on true events—charting a single sweltering summer in Atlanta that left no one unchanged
On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than one hundred of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers, and friends faced with renegotiating their lives—the hedonism of the sixties and the urgency of the civil rights movement at the city’s doorstep.
With Visible Empire, Hannah Pittard “brings her kaleidoscopic perspective to a catastrophe on an epic scale” (Los Angeles Times). Captivating and ambitious—and inspired by true events—this is a story of race, class, power, privilege, and, ultimately, of promise and hope.
Genre: Historical
On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than one hundred of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers, and friends faced with renegotiating their lives—the hedonism of the sixties and the urgency of the civil rights movement at the city’s doorstep.
With Visible Empire, Hannah Pittard “brings her kaleidoscopic perspective to a catastrophe on an epic scale” (Los Angeles Times). Captivating and ambitious—and inspired by true events—this is a story of race, class, power, privilege, and, ultimately, of promise and hope.
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"Visible Empire is Hannah Pittard's best book to date. Compelling, shocking, strong and brave. Who should read this? Everyone, everyone." - Helen Ellis
"Hannah Pittard is fast becoming one of the best writers of her generation, fusing the best aspects of literary and commercial fiction. Read her now, and thank me later." - Tom Franklin
"While stitching together the threads of several lives linked to a horrifying air disaster, Hannah Pittard unravels the fabric of their larger social world, revealing the true horror. Her prose is daring and confident, stellar and sharp. This is highly charged writing, a gripping and satisfying story." - Bobbie Ann Mason
"Hannah Pittard knows that Faulkner was right: the past is never dead - it isn't even past. In her stunning novel, Visible Empire, she brings harrowing incidents from 1962 into the present with the vivid immediacy of a documentary film. Writing of love, family, race, devastating loss, redemption, riveting mysteries revealed, Pittard composes a grand symphony of profound incidents and passages of life—a compassionate, spellbinding novel." - Howard Norman
"Visible Empire starts out as an examination of a mass tragedy and slowly morphs into something more intimate and revelatory. Hannah Pittard’s novel is a deeply resonant portrait of individuals—and a city—in the throes of grief, and on the cusp of momentous change." - Tom Perrotta
"Visible Empire tells of a community altered by tragedy and of citizens brought together by calamity. But it is also about the disasters we cause and the wreckage we must sift through afterward in order to understand the more mysterious aspects of our hearts. For those who've been following Pittard since The Fates Will Find Their Way, it's a thrilling book to read because it is to witness an important writer climb to new heights, and then soar." - Adam Ross
"In Visible Empire Hannah Pittard has written a work that is intricate, emotionally difficult and frequently moving. It's a view of the past that tells us much of what we need to know about the present." - Rion Amilcar Scott
"Hannah Pittard is fast becoming one of the best writers of her generation, fusing the best aspects of literary and commercial fiction. Read her now, and thank me later." - Tom Franklin
"While stitching together the threads of several lives linked to a horrifying air disaster, Hannah Pittard unravels the fabric of their larger social world, revealing the true horror. Her prose is daring and confident, stellar and sharp. This is highly charged writing, a gripping and satisfying story." - Bobbie Ann Mason
"Hannah Pittard knows that Faulkner was right: the past is never dead - it isn't even past. In her stunning novel, Visible Empire, she brings harrowing incidents from 1962 into the present with the vivid immediacy of a documentary film. Writing of love, family, race, devastating loss, redemption, riveting mysteries revealed, Pittard composes a grand symphony of profound incidents and passages of life—a compassionate, spellbinding novel." - Howard Norman
"Visible Empire starts out as an examination of a mass tragedy and slowly morphs into something more intimate and revelatory. Hannah Pittard’s novel is a deeply resonant portrait of individuals—and a city—in the throes of grief, and on the cusp of momentous change." - Tom Perrotta
"Visible Empire tells of a community altered by tragedy and of citizens brought together by calamity. But it is also about the disasters we cause and the wreckage we must sift through afterward in order to understand the more mysterious aspects of our hearts. For those who've been following Pittard since The Fates Will Find Their Way, it's a thrilling book to read because it is to witness an important writer climb to new heights, and then soar." - Adam Ross
"In Visible Empire Hannah Pittard has written a work that is intricate, emotionally difficult and frequently moving. It's a view of the past that tells us much of what we need to know about the present." - Rion Amilcar Scott
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Hannah Pittard's Visible Empire