In All the Living, a new debut novel by C. E. Morgan, a very young woman, orphaned at age three, moves in with her grief stricken, farmer lover on his deceased parents’ Kentucky tobacco farm. Horribly extreme weather conditions mimic the tumultuous erotically charged relationship, which is challenged by the lures of a grass roots preacher who lets Aloma, a budding classical music pianist, practice her tunes on the church’s piano. Events such as witnessing and assisting in the birth of a calf, fending off the extreme heat, harvesting the scorched tobacco, and dealing on a daily basis with a man obsessed with making a go of this ever challenging farm all propel the reader onto a roller coaster read well worth the time. Whether to stay in the relationship or flee…that is the question Aloma tosses around in her mind throughout this small, but powerful novel. Even the cover sets the stage!
-Nan
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