The Disenchantment of Narcissa Tarver

Narcissa Tarver is the youngest child in her tumultuous extended family, the only child born after the Civil War ended and Mississippi embarked upon Reconstruction and the crafting of the legal system known as Jim Crow. Caught between generations, relegated to the care of a Black teenager, and regaled with stories of haints and witches, Narcissa longs to be important like her celebrated brother Duncan, to matter in a world in which being young and female feels like disappearing. After an accident results in the amputation of much of her right hand, Narcissa discovers that despite her disability she has a knack for writing, and in her teens she begins composing articles for the local newspaper. Discouraged from any expectations of marriage and designated as caregiver for her aging parents, Narcissa's future appears bleak until her articles are picked up by other newspapers in the state and her blossoming ambition to be a real journalist intersects in startling ways with the political career of her volatile brother Duncan.Asfamily and truthcompete for Narcissa's loyalty, she becomes enmeshed in a historic court case over whitecapping (a violent vigilante movement) and strikes up an unexpected friendship with a Pinkerton detective employed by the state to bring the lawbreakers—including Duncan—to justice. Amid several shocking turns of events, Narcissa searches for the courage to break from her family and reach for a destiny of her own choosing.