The Wished-for Country » (1ST)

Wayne Karlin has been called by Tim O'Brien "one of the most gifted writers to emerge from the Vietnam War." He received an Excellence in the Arts Award from the Vietnam Veterans of America for his complete work in 2005. He lives in Maryland, where he teaches at the College of Southern Maryland.

The Wished For Country is set during the founding period of the Maryland colony, during the mid-17th century. The novel focuses on the entwined stories of James Hallam, a carpenter and indentured servant; Ezekiel, an African slave brought to Maryland from Barbados; and Tawzin, a Piscataway Indian, kidnapped to England when a child, and now back in America. While Hallam goes on to become a soldier and a player in the politics of the Maryland colony, Ezekiel and Tawzin become the center of an outcast group of blacks, whites, and Indians, who find themselves striving to reinvent themselves and their world. The stories of these three men, the women who love them, and the community they form, bring to vivid life the experiences of those who came to America pulled by a dream of what could be shaped from an emptiness that embodied promise, of those who were unwillingly brought to be the instruments of that dream, and of those who saw the shape of their world forever changed by the coming of the Europeans.

"The Wished For Country illuminates an aspect of our history that we dare not forget. Wayne Karlin's new book is an enthralling and important novel."-Robert Olen Butler

"A powerful and wonderful recreation, deeply imagined and richly detailed. This is a book to be cherished and [one hopes] highly honored."-George Garrett

"Again Wayne Karlin has demonstrated himself to be a serious artist who is concerned not only about what story is told but how! He has woven together strands of history and humanness and art into a wonderful whole."-Lucille Clifton

Wayne Karlin is the author of five novels: Crossover, Lost Armies, The Extras, Us, andPrisoners, and a memoir, Rumors and Stones. He lives in Southern Maryland.

Publishers Weekly

Karlin turns the stereotypes of colonial America upside down in this latest effort, a powerful, vividly imagined historical novel about a running battle between a violent carpenter and his former slave that takes place during a trade war in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 17th century. James Hallam opens the book working as an indentured carpenter for the powerful Lord Calvert, but when he finishes his task he earns both his freedom and the ownership of the slave who assisted him, Ezekiel. But Hallam forfeits his right to Ezekiel when he insults Calvert after the nobleman tries to persuade him to enlist in his militia and fight against Calvert's chief rival, William Claiborne. Ezekiel's happiness in his new-found freedom turns out to be brief when Hallam finds him with a Susquehannock woman that the former slave has rescued from tribal punishment, and when Hallam brutally rapes the woman the deadly feud between the pair is off and running. The trade war proves equally nasty as Calvert and Claiborne battle to control the lucrative beaver pelt trade, with casualties including several Maryland tribes, most notably the Piscataway, the Susquehannocks and the Anacostas. Karlin's primary subplot revolves around a search for his identity by another former slave named Tawzin, a Piscataway tribesman who has returned to America after being kidnapped and spending his formative years in Europe. Karlin remains unflinching in his portrayal of the savagery of both whites and natives, but he balances the violence with a heady blend of brilliant characterizations, his use of poetic, lurid animal imagery and a compelling narrative. Some murky plotting slows the proceedings occasionally, but Karlin goes beyond the genteel world depicted in most colonial novels to create a riveting stage for his unusual, terrifying passion play. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.