The Shade Tree
Winner of the 2020 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction and The 2022 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction
When the lies of thirteen-year-old Ellie Turner cause a black man's lynching in 1930s Florida, her younger sister Mavis begins to question the family's long-held beliefs about race. At the same time, the novel focuses on the courageous story of Sliver, a black midwife whose love for her grandson forces her to flee to Washington DC with the child, and Mavis, in tow. As the novel progresses through the decades, the lives of the three women merge and troubling family secrets are revealed.
The Shade Tree is a dramatic exploration of racial injustice and conflict set against the backdrop of some of America's most turbulent historical events. The lives of two white sisters and a black midwife are inextricably linked through a series of haunting tragedies, and the characters must make difficult, life-changing decisions about where their loyalties lie: with their biological families or with a greater moral cause. From a Florida orange grove to the seat of power in Washington, DC, during the height of the civil rights movement, The Shade Tree tells a sweeping yet intimate story of racial discrimination and the human hunger for justice.
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Theresa Shea's debut novel, The Unfinished Child, was a word of mouth best-seller. A popular book club selection, the novel was nominated for several awards and sold over 12,000 copies. The Shade Tree, winner of the 2020 Guernica Prize for best novel manuscript, is her much-anticipated follow-up. Born in the United States, Shea moved to Canada as a teenager in 1977. She lives, parents, and writes in Edmonton.
An emotional, complex work that presents difficult, important questions at a high level of craft.
----Guernica Prize Jurors Cyril Dabydeen, Margo LaPierre, and Matt MurphyIn her nuanced portrait of families riven by race and sex, Theresa Shea offers a searing indictment of Jim Crow's corrosive influence that, if unleashed and unquestioned, can make monsters of us all. Beautifully and unflinchingly written, this is a novel for our times.
--Terry Gamble, Author of The Water Dancers, Good Family, and The EulogistIn its account of almost half a century in the lives of two white Southern sisters and of the African Americans whose experiences are inextricable from theirs, The Shade Tree is brutally personal, heartbreakingly political - and remarkably written. Theresa Shea has combined boldness and subtlety with swaths of compassion to come up with a novel that's both complicated and ferociously clear.
--Joan Barfoot, Booker and Scotiabank Giller prizes nominee, and author of Abra, Luck, and Critical InjuriesTheresa Shea's The Shade Tree reminds me thematically of Lee's novel. It, too, is set in the south of the States in a similar, though far more expansive, time period; it follows the lives of two young white girls - sisters - coming of age and exploring their positions in the world as white, as women, and as white women. Where the novel differs from Lee's, though, is that it gives Sliver Lanier, a Black midwife, a voice of her own.
--Earthly AbodeThis story had me hooked from the very first line, and I read on eagerly waiting to find out how it progressed...Avoiding spoilers, I can only say it was a heartwarming conclusion to an otherwise difficult and challenging story, leaving me pleased at time well spent reading.
--Earthly AbodeMesmerizing, engrossing, and brilliantly plotted, this is an achievement that will echo long after the last page is turned.
--Historical Novel SocietyThe Shade Tree is compellingly written and meticulously crafted, with short, tight chapters, richly drawn characters, a tautly woven narrative, and precise, evocative descriptive passages. It is an unsettling but rewarding read.
--The Temz Review"Theresa Shea will surely have more to teach us in her future work." The Winnipeg Review
"Shea is a gifted writer with a deft hand." The Daily Tribune
"Shea doesn't provide easy answers, but shows us what women faced and face, in fluid, beautiful language." Alberta Views
"Gripping. Heart-wrenching. Thought-provoking. Riveting. Haunting. Unputdownable. ... I will not soon forget this book." Turn the Page blog, Lisa Morguess
