The Watery Part of the World

Michael Parker's vast and involving novel about pirates and slaves, treason and treasures, madness and devotion, takes place on a tiny island battered by storms and cut off from the world. Inspired by two little-known moments in history, it begins in 1813, when Theodosia Burr, en route to New York by ship to meet her father, Aaron Burr, disappears off the coast of North Carolina. It ends a hundred and fifty years later, when the last three inhabitants of a remote island--two elderly white women and the black man who takes care of them--are forced to leave their beloved spot of land. Parker tells an enduring story about what we'll sacrifice for love, and what we won't.

Author: Michael Parker
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 06/05/2012
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9781616201432
ISBN10: 1616201436
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | General
- Fiction | Literary

About the Author

Michael Parker is the author of six novels and two collections of stories. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various journals including Five Points, the Georgia Review, the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, Oxford American, Trail Runner, Runner's World and Men's Journal. He has received fellowships in fiction from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His work has been anthologized in the Pushcart, New Stories from the South and O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies. He is the Vacc Distinguished Professor in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and since 2009 has been on the faculty of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. He lives in Saxapahaw, North Carolina and Austin, Texas. Visit him at www.michaelfparker.com.