The Tilted World: A Novel (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
Tilted World is a lovely novel crafted by a talented husband and wife writing duo. Set in a sodden 1927 Mississippi as Herbert Hoover's political star is ascendant, the co-authors create a two memorable sets of collaborators working amidst the floods that devastated the watershed that year: a husband/wife bootlegging team, and two of Hoover's best revenue agents bent on solving the disappearance of fellow revenuers last seen in the company of the husband-moonshiner. Themes of trust and parenthood eddy around a plot that sweeps inexorably along like the mighty river itself. -- Chris
— From Chris WilcoxOctober 2013 Indie Next List
“In a compelling, poetic, and detailed manner, Franklin and Fennelly bring to life a little-known catastrophe in American history. The Tilted World weaves together the stories of two endearing characters -- an orphan who grows up to be a decorated World War I hero turned Prohibition revenuer and a bootlegging firecracker of a woman who yearns for her lost child. Add the setting of a town on the brink of destruction by deluge and some unsavory characters looking to profit from calamity, and the reader will be swept away by their story.”
— Sara Peyton, CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, KY
Description
In 1927, as rains swell the Mississippi, the river threatens to burst its banks and engulf everything in its path, including the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, where federal agents Ted Ingersoll and Ham Johnson arrive to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents—and find a baby boy abandoned in the middle of a crime scene.
Ingersoll finds a home for the infant with local woman Dixie Clay Holliver, unaware that she's the best bootlegger in the county and has many tender and consequential secrets of her own.
The Tilted World is an extraordinary tale of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, and a man and a woman who find unexpected love.
About the Author
Tom Franklin is the New York Times bestselling author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger Award. His previous works include Poachers, Hell at the Breech, and Smonk. He teaches in the University of Mississippi's MFA program.
Beth Ann Fennelly has published three volumes of poetry and a work of nonfiction, Great with Child. She directs the University of Mississippi's MFA program.
Praise For…
“A new novel from Tom Franklin is always a reason to get excited, but a novel from Franklin and Fennelly is just cause to throw a block party.” — Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestelling author of Live By Night
“The Tilted World is everything I hold dear in a novel—a raucous, page-turning story with grit, utterly steeped in the land and people, and told in such poetic language that I kept forcing myself to slow down so I could enjoy the writing.” — Eowyn Ivey, New York Times bestselling author of the The Snow Child
“Thriller stories are easy to come by—as are small lyrical gems. The two come together in The Tilted World. . . . You will experience a sprawling story of conflict, disorder, shame, and horror that is umbrellaed by an even bigger story—one of love.” — Garden & Gun magazine
“A swift, soulful mix of love story and crime saga . . . evocative characters and unpretentious but shapely prose . . . The Tilted World is literary crime fiction of the highest order.” — Seattle Times
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