Synopses & Reviews
Caroline Venable has everything her Southern heritage promised: money, prestige, a rich husband -- and a predictable routine of country-club luncheons and cocktail parties. Caroline is the chatelaine of a magnificent home, hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and prospective clients, and the official "one-woman welcome wagon" for young, eager talent that her husband, Clay, imports to their corner of South Carolina to work for the family company -- a vastly successful land-developing conglomerate.
If Caro drinks a little too much for Clay's liking, he knows the reason why, and he takes comfort in the fact that she can escape to the island in the Lowcountry that her beloved Granddaddy left her. Wild and seemingly timeless, the island is a place of incomparable, breathtaking beauty -- and it is the one place where Caroline can lose herself and simply forget. Roaming the island is a band of wild ponies whose freedom and spirit have captivated Caro since she was a child. When she learns that her husband must either develop the island or lose the company that he spent his whole life building, she is devastated. The Lowcountry is Caroline's heritage -- the one constant she believed would never change. A resort would not only tame (and therefore destroy) the island she loves -- but what will happen to the wild ponies?
Spurred to action and inspired with new purpose, Caroline must confront the part of herself that she has numbed with alcohol and careful avoidance, and she must reconsider her priorities -- what is important enough that she would die for it? In fighting to save the island--her island -- Caroline draws on an inner strength that forces her to reconsider her role in society, her marriage and, ultimately, herself.
Low Country is a story of personal renewal and transformation -- one woman's proper Old South upbringing and expectations colliding with the new South's runaway prosperity. It is magnificently told, and it is Anne Rivers Siddons at her absolute best.
Synopsis
The bestselling author of last summer's blockbuster, Up Island (16 weeks on the New York Times list), presents the empowering story of a woman's life-changing fight to save an island of wild ponies.
Caroline Aubrey Gentry Has Everything Her Southern Heritage promised: money, prestige, a rich husband. If she drinks a little too much and her 20-year marriage to successful land developer Clay seems a little empty, well, she's doing what she was born to do: be the chatelaine of a magnificent home and a hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and perspective clients.
Her numbing routine of country-club luncheons, cocktail parties, and increasing isolation is interrupted, however, when Caroline finds out that her tycoon husband plans to build a resort on a beautiful untouched island in South Carolina's low country. The island is a quiet haven, rich in low country history and meaningful memories from Caroline's youth. But most important to Caroline, his plans will mean the devastation of a band of wild ponies that roam freely across the island. Spurred to action and inspired with new purpose, Caroline must confront the life she has been leading and reach deep within herself to save this special place out of her past, and ultimately, make a meaningful life for herself.
Siddons at her best, Low Country is a story of personal renewal and transformation, when one woman's proper Old South upbringing collides with the New South's runaway prosperity.
About the Author
Anne Rivers Siddons's bestselling novels include Nora, Nora; Sweetwater Creek; Islands; and Fox's Earth. She is also the author of the nonfiction work John Chancellor Makes Me Cry. She and her husband divide their time between Charleston, South Carolina, and Brooklin, Maine.