The Marsh Bird
Publisher Kohler Books – August 3, 2021
Woven with murder, mystery, and magic, THE MARSH BIRD is a compelling story of a young, orphaned, multiracial girl from Louisiana and a white teen abandoned as an infant and raised by a local white fisherman, both embraced by the residents of a rural, Gullah Geechee sea island community. Set among descendants of those once enslaved in the lush marshes of the Lowcountry coast of South Carolina and Georgia, this is an unforgettable love story, and a tale of survival that proves it is the bonds of love and care that create a family.
“The Marsh Bird is a remarkable debut novel, a Lowcountry love story that will break your heart, but put it back together.” – Cassandra King Conroy, NYT bestselling author of The Sunday Wife and My Life with Pat Conroy
“The Marsh Bird is a wise and perceptive novel; the author weaves enduring folklore into an engrossing tale of family, race, and belonging that is as old as America and as relevant as today. Book groups will love this one!”—Jonathan Odell, the author of The Rosa Parks League and The Healing
“Anne Brooker James has offered us a gift – a gorgeous, powerful, moving story that is also a page-turner. Her descriptions of Gullah Geechee sea island world is so lush, so visceral and real that I felt as if I were in the hot, humid marsh along with her unforgettable characters. While reminiscent of Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides or Delia Owens’ Where Crawdads Sing, James has done something unique. She has given voice to a place, a people and its history. It is clear that she knows this world in her very bones. It is hard for me to believe that this is a debut novel. I savored every word.” — Mary Morris author of The Jazz Palace and All the Way to the Tigers
“This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. With a rich knowledge of the Gullah Geechee culture, it shows a deep level of sensitivity, respect and love for the Gullah Geechee people, our language, our art forms, our traditions and spirituality” –Victoria Smalls, state commissioner of the SC African American Heritage Commission
