A Parchment of Leaves ( True First Edition ) [Paperback]

Silas House (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Algonquin; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (January 1, 2002)
• ASIN: B001AMAQHE
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,102,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Silas House is the author of four novels: Clay's Quilt (2001), A Parchment of Leaves (2003), The Coal Tattoo (2004), Eli the Good (2009), a play, The Hurting Part (2005), and Something's Rising (2009), a creative nonfiction book about social protest co-authored with Jason Howard. A new play, Long Time Traveling premiered in April 2009.

House serves as Writer-in-Residence at Lincoln Memorial University, where he also directs the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. He is a contributing editor for No Depression magazine, where he has done long features on such artists as Lucinda Williams, Nickel Creek, Buddy Miller, Kelly Willis, Darrell Scott, Delbert McClinton, and many others. He is also one of Nashville's most in-demand press kit writers, having written the press kit bios for such artists as Kris Kristofferson, Kathy Mattea, Leann Womack, and many others.

House is a two-time finalist for the Southern Book Critics Circle Prize, a two-time winner of the Kentucky Novel of the Year, the Appalachian Book of the Year, Appalachian Writer of the Year (2009), the Chaffin Prize for Literature, the Award for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and many other honors. Recently House was personally selected by the subject to write the foreword for the biography of Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons. In 2005 he also wrote the introduction for the new HarperCollins edition of Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses.

House's work can be found in Newsday, Oxford American, Bayou, The Southeast Review, The Louisville Review, The Beloit Fiction Journal, Wind, Night Train, and others, as well as in the anthologies New Stories From the South 2004: The Year's Best, Christmas in the South, A Kentucky Reader, Of Woods and Water, A Kentucky Christmas, Shouts and Whispers, High Horse, The Alumni Grill, Stories From the Blue Moon Café I and II, and many others.

For his environmental activism House received the Helen Lewis Community Lewis Award in 2008 from the Appalachian Studies Association.

House is currently working on his fifth novel, Evona Darling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who are your people?, November 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Parchment of Leaves (Hardcover)

Following his well-received Clay's Quilt, Silas House continues to explore the meaning of family, love, home, and belonging. Unlike many popular novels today, House is never heavy-handed in his themes. A Parchment of Leaves unfolds itself as naturally to the reader as own lives unfold to us. His clear prose is welcoming and contains an undercurrent of description that reveals the simple beauties of the landscape and human relationships. The characters of Vine and Serena are so three-dimensional that you'll convince yourself they're real people. Curl up with your quilt, a cup of hot chocolate, and this book. Recommended for all readers, not just devotees of Southern literature.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, September 26, 2004

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Parchment of Leaves (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

A beautifully written book by the author of CLAY'S QUILT, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES takes us back to the early 1900's and the mountains of Appalachia. Vine, a young Cherokee girl, is rumored to have sent men to their graves by casting spells on them, for she is reputed to have special magical powers. The white men of the area fear her, especially as they pass her home on the way up the mountains to work on the construction of a mansion being built for a rich man named Tate Masters.

One day, Saul Sullivan and his brother Aaron are on their way up the mountain to help with the construction, and they pass Vine's house. Saul sees Vine for the first time and is instantly smitten, but she ignores him. A while later, she hears screams and finds that Aaron has been bitten by a poisonous snake. With her knowledge of Indian medicine, she saves his life.

Vine's life is changed forever. No longer does she live within the confines of the Cherokee community. The snakebite that nearly kills Aaron paves the way for Saul and Vine's courtship and soon they are married. She moves away from Redbud Camp and the Cherokee people, and moves in with her new husband and mother-in-law Esme, who live in a place called God's Creek.

Although Vine and Saul love each other, she misses her family terribly. However, her mother-in-law is very supportive of them, despite the rumors that have spread about Vine and her evil spells and the fact that she is a Cherokee. The two women become close, which helps to ease Vine's homesickness. She befriends the local midwife, Serena, who Saul mentions, is "crackerjack", but Vine ignores the comment and soon the two women are the closest of friends.

The people at God's Creek also accept Vine as part of their community. She learns their ways, sings their songs, dances their Irish jigs, and eats their food. She creates a loving home for her husband and new baby. But she is not completely happy. She finds that Saul is not as talkative as she would have liked, and is upset that he keeps things to himself, failing to open himself up to her.

At the same time, Aaron develops an obsession for Vine, which begins to scare her. She tries to ignore what is happening, and one day she finds that he is following her, hiding behind trees as he spies on her. She keeps this from Saul, knowing that he will never believe her and will always come to the defense of his family.

With Saul by her side, Vine feels protected, but one day he tells her that he has decided to temporarily move to a neighboring county to help with the war effort. It'll help bring in more money and give them the type of life they can only dream of. As soon as Saul leaves God's Creek, Aaron approaches Vine and professes his love for her, coming on so strong that she screams at him to leave. He disappears, leaving Esme and Vine to fend for themselves, only to return months later with a new wife, Aidia, who happens to physically resemble Vine.

With Aaron back in their lives with a new wife, Vine at first thinks that everything is going to be all right. But as Aidia begins to confide in Vine, she finds out that Aaron's return to God's Creek spells trouble. What later happens between Vine and Aaron is so horrible that no one learns the truth except Vine's closest friend Serena. With this weighing heavy on her mind, Vine finds life intolerable and dreads the day of Saul's return, knowing that she can never keep this secret from him.

Like a series of musical notes, Silas House creates in A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES a lyrical work of art as he tells the story of Vine and her life away from her Cherokee roots. The beauty of the story is found not only in the story itself, but also in the way that House lays down his words on paper and paints the world of early 20th century Appalachia. Although several important themes run through the story, I feel the most important component of this book is how House chose to tell his story, with a lot of imagery and descriptive passages that helped take me back to the home of his ancestors.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't catch my breath, October 7, 2002

By 

Alice Hale Adams (Fordsville, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Parchment of Leaves (Hardcover)

The word pictures in A Parchment of Leaves drew me into the story so deeply I could barely breathe. Through the transitions of time and place I became a part of Vine, sharing her life, wanting to be with her. Redbud Camp and God's Creek became my world. I know these people through the heart of Silas House.