THE ROSE OF JERICHO

The publisher said the new novel is "a sweeping saga following siblings Coleman and June three years after they have been freed from slavery." It opens in 1868, a few years after The Sweetness of Water concludes, as the siblings' former owner has fled Louisiana for Mexico, with June in tow, "on a quixotic mission to form a colony with other Confederate rebels intent on re- creating the antebellum lifestyle to which they were accustomed." The Rose of Jericho is based loosely on historical records, and the fact that some Confederate supporters fled to Mexico after the Civil War.