Fallen Land by Taylor Brown

There is something about the cover for Fallen Land by Taylor Brown that I truly love.  It reflects the story so well: the mix of dark and light, the hidden depths and the elegant, old-time (Civil War Georgia is the setting) wallpaper background with the silhouette of a young man, pregnant woman and Horse at the forefront.  That image alone evokes so much of the context for the harrowing adventures that Taylor Brown recounts in this debut novel.  

He tells the story of Callum, an orphaned Irish immigrant, and Ava, a young woman left alone after her father’s death in the American Civil War.  They are on the run from Clayburn, a truly despicable and vicious bounty hunter.  The book is packed with gunfights, killings and desperate acts to stay alive. Brown weaves in historical events like the burning of Atlanta and uses many smaller acts of violence to aptly illustrate the harshness of the times. As Callum and Ava begin their journey atop Reiver, a horse with remarkably steadfast character, I was intrigued and thought this might be a historical fiction work that would appeal to both our male and female students.  Sadly, the story slows in the middle and I found myself hoping that they would either be caught or finally escape – even the near misses were starting to seem a bit redundant.  Taylor Brown is an amazing writer who allows his reader to reflect (“You ever think how many songs will go unwritten because of this war, unsung? Paintings unpainted, discoveries unmade? You ever think of that?”). Overall, Brown’s descriptions are beautifully crafted and certainly transported me to a time and place when even young boys had to be self-reliant, depend on their knowledge of nature, and guard against the evil that was rampant.

If you like westerns (although this is obviously set in the South) or works of historical fiction with some violence, do read Fallen Land by Taylor Brown – your patience will be rewarded. Starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus where is was compared to Frazier’s Cold Mountain or McCarthy’s Border Trilogy.