Sing Down the Moon Summary
Sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye yearns to escape Good Hope, the remote Georgia coastal barrier island where she resides. Leontyne’s heritage is bleak. Tasked with tending Damascus, an ancient fig tree beguiling haints across the river with its wind chime song, Leontyne’s mother, Eulalee, disintegrates into tufts of hair, teeth, and memory. This affliction befalls all Skye women, a fatal consequence of distilling Redemption, an addictive drug made from the figs of Damascus imbued with the essence of haints.
Leontyne also tumbles apart, her memories and hand lost in a life-altering accident suffered two years back during an event known as Tribulation Day. Through unreliable recollections of her trusted friends, the Longwood twins, Leontyne stitches a dubious understanding of who she was before she fell “the long-long ways.”
In the aftermath of Eulalee’s death, Leontyne is pressured by the Longwoods to render Redemption, continuing the legacy upon which Good Hope depends. When a handsome stranger arrives, relationships unravel as the Longwood twins battle to claim the stranger for themselves, derailing Leontyne’s plans to escape Good Hope.
Each moment Leontyne refuses Damascus, haints accumulate in menacing hordes. As Leontyne’s memories return, everything she believes to be true is called into question, including the devastating events of Tribulation Day. Leontyne soon realizes her birthright extends beyond the business of making Redemption, while her acceptance of her destiny as the Great Redeemer threatens her very existence. Her refusal: irrevocably shattering the fragile balance between the living and the dead.
Praise for Sing Down the Moon
“There is so much to admire in Robert Gwaltney’s new novel—how it is both intensely Southern yet also reminiscent of the magical realism of writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez; its appealing heroine caught between the demands of her community (both the living and the dead) and the desires of her own heart; its delightful blend of colloquial and lyric language—all of which make Sing Down the Moon a remarkable achievement.”
—Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena and The Caretaker
“Sing Down the Moon is a wholly original, ambitious, and lyrical southern gothic fantasy that is both tantalizing and immersive. Gwaltney’s imagination soars in this epic story centered around a young girl named Leontyne Skye who struggles to come to terms with her birthright while navigating the complex environment of a mythical Georgia barrier island where trickery, lies and deceit are as abundant as quicksand and moonbeams. An enchanting and alluring read - I loved it.”
—Donna Everhart, author of The Saints of Swallow Hill
“Robert Gwaltney’s sophomore follow-up to The Cicada Tree is Southern Gothic at its finest. With beautiful prose and an artist’s eye, his descriptions immerse the reader in the beauty and fairy-tale magic of coastal Georgia. Characters who are wounded both physically and emotionally populate this story of family legacy and the price of betrayal. This is the perfect read for fans of Southern fiction and magical realism and for those who enjoy savoring every word.”
—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of That Last Carolina Summer
Robert Gwaltney’s silver pen spins a Southern Gothic tale of spangles and shadows that drape over the history of this haunted island and the fabulous family that lives—well, mostly lives—there. With nothing short of glee, Gwaltney bestows fates and furies upon his beloved and tortured characters as artfully and soulfully as he names them, and beneath the swirling poetry, writes a simple coming-of-age novel that examines the hard truths about life and death. A rambling fever dream, Sing Down the Moon will sweep readers away on a fickle wind and a wild tide and deliver them softly on a benevolent shore, gasping with wonder. Be prepared to love this book."
—Kimberly Brock, bestselling author of The Fabled Earth
“Sing Down the Moon is a brilliant fable written by an extremely talented man. It is a dazzling performance about the distance between life and death on a haunted island off the coast of Georgia. Incredibly inventive and unexpected at every turn, this novel shines with talent. You will love it.”
—Philip Lee Williams, author of 21 volumes of fiction, poetry, and essays and a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
"Tender, wistful, and poignant, Sing Down the Moon is a novel of profound beauty that mesmerizes with lyrical prose and earthy Southern magic. Gwaltney woos and sings you on a redolent journey through the Lowcountry marshes, where haints seek redemption and a trio of uncommonly charming young people grapple with the sins of the past, false memories, and secrets left unburied. Lush, haunting, and completely unforgettable."
—Paulette Kennedy, bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain
“There’s an almost Dickensian denseness to Robert Gwaltney's lyrical writing that invites a savor-every-turn-of-phrase reading. Happy to report, his Sing Down the Moon is no different. This lavish, beautifully-told ghost story is populated with characters who hover between the living and the dead in a dimly-lit world that is both frightening and funny. His characters want what they want with a mighty need, always tempered by Gwaltney’s hand with a tender humanity. One can't help but root for them as they journey through this tale that sits, uniquely, at the intersection of Southern Gothic, Magical Realism, family drama, and coming-of-age story-telling.”
—Jeffrey Dale Lofton, award-winning author of Red Clay Suzie and Georgia Author of the Year
“With his sophomore effort, Sing Down the Moon, former Georgia Debut Author of the Year, Robert Gwaltney, has somehow taken his craft to an even higher level. The novel is simply stunning. It's a masterclass in Southern Mysticism—a wrenching and fantastical journey through the grit and grace of an imagined southeastern coast. Gwaltney's prose lands somewhere between the haunting urgency of Jesmyn Ward and the languid lyricism of Faulkner or Wolfe. But it is in the voice of Leontyne Skye—the tender-hearted protagonist whose music and magic propel the plot in spellbinding fashion—that Gwaltney stakes a claim to his own, singular literary style. I was wholly enchanted the first time I read this novel, and I've not stopped returning to it since.”
—James Wade, author of Narrow the Road
“With his novel, Sing Down The Moon, Robert Gwaltney is vying for heir apparent to Georgis's own Flannery O'Connor. He's created characters — singular, quirky, magical — that will ignite your imagination. And told in language, so filled with poetry and awe, it will flat out weave its web around you. Prepare to be delighted in this spectacular Georgia tale.”
—Bren McClain, award-winning author of One Good Mama Bone
The Cicada Tree Book Trailer
The Cicada Tree Book
THE CICADA TREE (Moonshine Cove Publishing, February 22, 2022)
Advance Praise:
“Following in the magnificent footsteps of Carson McCullers and Harper Lee, Robert Gwaltney creates a wonderful snapshot of the friendship that forms between Analeise and Etta Mae, two eleven-year-old girls in ‘50’s small town Georgia. His prose is both precise and lyrical, and the loveliness of childhood and their friendship is shadowed by a sense of mystery and foreboding. There is no sound in English than that of Southern speech: there is poetry in every inflection, in every nuance. This is a book to love and remember, and every book club in America would be wise to snap it up.”
–Robert Goolrick, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“The gothic beauty of a relentless Georgia summer is brought to life through Gwaltney’s deliberate details and exquisite imagery, while all the while evil lurks beneath the surface; from where or what the reader does not know but is as convinced by Gwaltney’s expert storytelling as he is.”
–Zoe Fishman, bestselling author of Invisible Air and Georgia Author of the Year 2020
“This is Southern Gothic with a vengeance—a dark blast of family secrets, strained loyalties, and bitter betrayals. We follow young Analeise Newell with fear and hope, dreading what may happen to her even as we turn the pages. Robert Gwaltney is a writer to watch.”
–Christopher Swann, author of Never Turn Back (Crooked Lane Books)
Summary:
“Some things in this world are meant to burn ...”
The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed.
During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty. A whisper and an act of violence perpetrated during this visit by Mrs. Mayfield all converge to kindle Analeise’s fascination with the Mayfields.
Analeise’s burgeoning obsession with the Mayfield family overshadows her own seemingly, ordinary life, culminating in dangerous games and manipulation, setting off a chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences—all of it unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song.