One of Essence's Best Books of the Decade!
A New York Times Notable Book of 2012!
Gathering of Waters is a finalist for a Phillis Wheatley Fiction
Book Award!
Gathering of Waters was named a finalist for a 2013 Hurston/Wright
Legacy Award!
Gathering of Waters has been selected as a Go On Girl! April 2013
Book Pick.
McFadden works a kind of miracle--not only do [her characters] retain
their appealing humanity; their story eclipses the bonds of history to
offer continuous surprises...Beautiful and evocative, Gathering of
Waters brings three generations to life...The real power of the
narrative lies in the richness and complexity of the characters. While
they inhabit these pages they live, and they do so gloriously and
messily and magically, so that we are at last sorry to see them go, and
we sit with those small moments we had with them and worry over them,
enchanted, until they become something like our own memories, dimmed by
time, but alive with the ghosts of the past, and burning with spirits.
--Jesmyn Ward, New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
Read it aloud. Hire a chorus to chant it to you and anyone else
interested in hearing about civil rights and uncivil desires, about the
dark heat of hate, about the force of forgiveness.
--Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered, NPR
McFadden combines events of Biblical proportions--from flooding to
resurrection--with history to create a cautionary, redemptive tale that
spans the early twentieth century to the start of Hurricane Katrina. She
compellingly invites readers to consider the distinctions between 'truth
or fantasy'...In McFadden's boldly spun yarn, consequences extend across
time and place. This is an arresting historical portrait of Southern
life with reimagined outcomes, suggesting that hope in the enduring
power of memory can offer healing where justice does not suffice.
--Publishers Weekly
The rich text is shaped by the African American storytelling tradition
and layered with significant American histories. Recalling the woven
spirituality of Toni Morrison's Beloved, this work will appeal to
readers of mystic literature.
--Library Journal
McFadden makes powerful use of imagery in this fantastical novel of
ever-flowing waters and troubled spirits.
--Booklist
In this fierce reimagining, the actual town of Money, MS narrates the
story about the ghost of Emmett Till and his from-the-other-side
reunification with the girl he loved as a child in Gathering of Waters
by Bernice L. McFadden.
--Ebony Magazine
Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town
of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our
collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting
story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of
the Hilson and Bryant families.
Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was
brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries
Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.
Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money
and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released
from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are
reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.
Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well
as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The
bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a
magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni
Morrison's Beloved.
