Feather Crowns - by Bobbie Ann Mason (Paperback)

About the Book

Set in the apocalyptic atmosphere of the turn of this century, this engaging novel by the author of In Country tells the story of a young farm wife, living in rural Kentucky, who unintentionally creates a national sensation when she gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in North America.

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

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. Thousands of strangers descend on her home, all wanting too see and touch the miracle babies. One visitor crawls right in through the window! 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 seamy traveling shows to the hushed precincts of 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 destined to confirm Bobbie Ann Mason as one of America's most important writers.--USA Today

Review Quotes

"Possesses both gravity and grace; it has the power to move us with its simple, heartfelt depiction of ordinary, inarticulate people and their efforts to cope with the unexpected." - New York Times
"Feather Crowns is Bobbie Ann Mason's most ambitious, and to my mind, best book." - Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres
"A dramatic triumph. . . her finest novel to date." - Chicago Tribune
"A wonderful novel . . . riveting . . . memorable and complete." - New York Times Book Review
"Feather Crowns has the feel of an epic to it . . . surely Bobbie Ann Mason's best work to date." - USA Today
"A transcendent act of imagining the past." - Washington Post Book World
"Poignant and audacious. . . . A masterpiece." - Indianapolis Star
"A moving, generous novel that is as powerful as it is tender, as immensely readable as it is literate." - Milwaukee Journal
"A brilliantly sustained and grimly humorous parable about fame in 20th-Century America." - Los Angeles Times