Lum

Lum

2015 Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award Winner
2016 American Library Association’s Stonewall Awards Winner of the Barbara Gittings Honor Book Award
2016 IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction

Lum has always been on the outside. At eight, she was diagnosed with what we now call an intersex condition and is told she can’t expect to marry. Now, at thirty-three, she has no home of her own but is shuttled from one relative’s house to another—valued for her skills, but never treated like a true member of the family. Everything is turned upside down, however, when the Blue Ridge Parkway is slated to come through her family’s farmland. As people take sides in the fight, the community begins to tear apart—culminating in an act of violence and subsequent betrayal by opponents of the new road. But the Parkway also brings Lum an unexpected opportunity—one that ultimately gives her the courage to break away from her family’s expectations.

Author: Libby Ware

Publication Date: October 20, 2015

AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
IBOOKS
INDIEBOUND
AUDIBLE

Categories: , , , ,

Description

2015 Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award Winner
2015/2016 Sarton Women’s Book Award Shortlist
2016 American Library Association’s Stonewall Awards Winner of the Barbara Gittings Honor Book Award
2016 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist
2016 Indie Fab Finalist in LGBT
2016 IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction
2016 International Book Award Winner in Fiction: Gay and Lesbian Fiction

“Lum is an engaging portrait of a village in the Virginia Blue Ridge during the Great Depression. Lum’s courageous journey to selfhood is profound and moving, and a metaphor for the process of self-acceptance necessary for anyone who doesn’t fit into traditional social norms.”
—Lisa Alther, author of Kinfolks

“Libby Ware has written with a rich new southern voice and captured the dying art of storytelling in her debut novel.”
—Ann Hite, author of the award-winning Ghost On Black Mountain and Georgia Author of the Year, 2011

” . . .a startlingly good debut novel.”
—Atlanta Magazine

“ . . . captivating . . . Ware writes with a charismatic Southern voice that will appeal to readers of Ron Rash, Lee Smith, and Wiley Cash. I read Lum from start to finish in one day and relished its fresh characters and take on history… Select if for your book club, and get ready for a rip-roaring discussion.”
—Hungry for Good Books

“ . . . a treat for those who appreciate character-centered historical fiction. Lum’s courageous journey toward independence makes her a heroine worth fighting for, and readers will find themselves missing her company after the final page turns.”
—Historical Novels Review

About the Author

Libby Ware lived the first five years of her life in West Virginia, and spent some childhood summers in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. She is the owner of Toadlily Books, an antiquarian book business, and is also a book collector. The beginning of Lum, excerpted as a short story, “The Circuit,” was published in Feminist Studies in 2009, and was a finalist in the Poets & Writers Award for Georgia Writers, judged by Jennifer Egan. Ware lives in Atlanta with her two dogs, Tilly and Robin, and a mile away from her partner, Charlene Ball.

Related products

Go to Top