Ocean State Libraries

A “beautifully written” Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about prejudice and a distinguished family’s secrets in the American South (The Atlantic Monthly).
Seven generations of the Howland family have lived in the Alabama plantation home built by an ancestor who fought for Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Over the course of a century, the Howlands accumulated a fortune, fought for secession, and helped rebuild...

Young Irish American Saul Sullivan marries a beautiful Cherokee woman named Vine. As a mixed race couple, they weather a storm of prejudice, but eventually find acceptance with Saul's family. Then Saul must move away to another country for a year to find work. Taking advantage of his absence, Aaron, Saul's jealous younger brother, begins to make unwanted advances on Vine. The tragic violence to come will change all of their lives forever.

Narrative of the Hawks-Ravenal family on the Mississippi, in "Cotton Blossom", their floating palace theater.

"Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan's current unemployment and their need to revamp their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Sagarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish...

Rachel LeMoyne, a mixed-blood Choctaw raised in a Presbyterian mission, knows that her calling in 1847 is to travel to Ireland to feed the starving people there with her own people's life-giving surplus corn. But she never expects to find a husband among the hungry and grief-stricken people--especially not a husband considered to be an outlaw. When Rachel and Darragh return to America as husband and wife, a new challenge awaits her: they must flee...

As the daughter of biracial parents, fourteen-year-old Staggerlee already feels like an outsider in her largely African-American community, and a summer with her cousin Trout during which both girls question their sexuality, allows Stagerlee to think about the type of person she can become.

"A poignant and transporting cross-cultural love story set against the lush backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food and family in her darkest hour. It was love at first sight when Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro's traditional Sicilian family did not approve of him marrying a black American woman, an actress no less. However, the couple,...

"The Chandaria family - emigrants from the Indian-enclave of Nairobi - have managed to flourish in America. Premchand, the father, is a doctor who has worked doggedly to grow his practice and give his family security; his wife, Urmila, runs a business importing artisanal Kenyan crafts; and their son, Sunil, after quitting the pre-med track, is enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy at Harvard. But the parents have kept a very important secret from...

In spite of her upbringing, a young Japanese woman begins seeing an American soldier and finds that he is not like the foreigners her parents have taught her to avoid.