
From the author of the highly acclaimed The Story of Land and Sea comes a captivating novel, set in the late eighteenth-century American South, that follows a singular group of companions—an escaped slave, a white orphan, and a Creek Indian—who are being tracked down for murder.
In the few days they spend together, the makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. Sent to pick up their trail, a probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice, or his own curiosity about how three such disparate, desperate men could act in unison.
Katy Simpson Smith skillfully brings into focus men whose lives are both catastrophic and full of hope—and illuminates the lives of the women they left behind. Far from being anomalies, Cat, Bob, and Istillicha are the beating heart of the new America that Le Clerc struggles to comprehend. In these territories caught between European, American, and Native nations, a wilderness exists where four men grapple with the importance of family, the stain of guilt, and the competing forces of power, love, race, and freedom—questions that continue to haunt us today.
“Katy Simpson Smith’s FREE MEN channels a world radically different and utterly similar to our own, and renders viscerally that quintessential American impulse to get yourself a new life. And in so doing, it reminds us of the spectacular ways in which we as a society and as individuals have always continually failed one another, even as it also evokes those non-negligible instances of valor—when it comes to giving, and sharing—of which we’re capable, as well.”
— Jim Shepard
“I was immediately seduced by the quality of the prose, its meditative tone and haunting imagery—a poet’s imagery, thrilling in its uncanny detail—and richness. This is a deep, pondered world, a pleasure to experience and behold.”
— Amanda Coplin
“Katy Smith made an auspicious entrance with THE STORY OF LAND AND SEA. Now, in FREE MEN, she confirms her status as a truly distinctive and lyrical voice and in my judgment, the most sophisticated historical novelist of her generation.”
— Joseph J. Ellis
“Do not be alarmed. Katy Simpson Smith’s FREE MEN will have you gasping for breath as you flip the final page, possibly as you flip the final hundred pages. This is literature at its finest: a novel about another time that—rather than alienate—instead clarifies and brings into view our own time. Among other things—freedom, race, the curiosity inherent to mankind—this is a story about flawed but earnest men and the flawed but earnest women left behind.”
— Hannah Pittard
- “With this collage of experiences twisted together and soaked in blood, Smith cuts to the bone of our national character.”
Ron Charles, Washington Post
- “A novel of American masculinity that deserves comparison with Cormac McCarthy, Jim Harrison and Herman Melville. The bar is set that high and the canvas stretched that broad.”
Matthew Guinn, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
- “The heart of this quietly graceful and lushly-written novel is Cat. His narration recalls Faulkner in its acrobatic use of metaphor and earthy, visceral near-poetry.”
Chapter 16 (Nashville, TN)
- “Smith again applies her close attention to historical subjects, a feel for evocative language, and the undertone of a woman’s longing and adds to that structured suspense and epic ambition.”
Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC)
- “Glimpses into a vanished but fully realized world, one which has completely engaged us by novel’s satisfying end.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
- “If she hasn’t been compared to de Tocqueville yet, she will be soon.”
Nashville Scene, Critics’ Picks
- “Smith’s decision to have the characters tell their own backstories gives the book its sociological heft. . . . Smith’s mirror artfully portrays the men as neither bloodthirsty villains nor victims.”
Charlotte Observer
- “Smith’s sharp prose has a sense of urgency, propelling the story swiftly forward, but not without exploring the complexities of the South and of America’s own challenging and often violent beginnings.”
New Orleans Magazine
- “[Smith’s] work within the genre of historical fiction adds a fresh voice.”
Huffington Post, 11 Fabulous New Books by Women
- “If you are looking for historical fiction that you cannot put down, . . . Smith delivers with her sophomore novel, crafting beautifully developed characters who tell a story all their own.”
The Daily Mississippian
- “Evokes the complexity of a fledgling America in precise, poetic language. . . . Rich with insights about history and the human heart.”
Publishers Weekly
- “A harrowing tale of three men on the run from the law.”
Huffington Post, 32 New Books to Add to Your Shelf in 2016
- “If [The Story of Land and Sea] could be described as a beautiful murmur, this book is a shout, sharply written and more urgent.”
Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
- “There’s nothing about being a girl that requires meekness.”
Musings (from Parnassus Books)
- “It seemed natural to go to places that I wanted to explore.”
Garden & Gun, Southern Hot List
- “It’s the story that will burrow into the hearts of readers, not the petticoats.”
Huffington Post
- “While the men are trying to figure out their lives, they have these women on their shoulders who are providing a model for how to live a decisive and brave life in early America.”
The State of Things, WUNC
- “We all want the same things: someone to love us, a family to comfort us, a sense of history, a sense of purpose.”
Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
- “I don’t know any more about how to write a novel now than I ever did.”
New Orleans Advocate
- “Snowballs, snowballs, snowballs.”
GoNOLA.com
- “Trying to get into the heads of eighteenth-century men was a thrill for me.”
My Carolina Talk, WNCN
- “Writers love to imagine the worst, as a way to see what the limits of the human soul are.”
Writer’s Voice with Francesca Rheannon
- “I never felt that my age was a handicap. I don’t think it really matters how old you are; it’s just how big your imagination is.”
Mississippi Edition, MPB
- “One of the things I wanted to do with an enslaved character was to depict a version of slavery that was neither the most horrific thing you can imagine nor an idealized, romantic view of it. “
Gambit (New Orleans, LA)
- “Southerners are all connected, whether we like it or not.”
The Daily Mississippian
Tuesday, June 19
In Conversation with Caleb Johnson
Turkey and the Wolf
TALLAHASSEE, FL
Sunday, April 15, 5:00 pm
Word of South Festival of Literature and Music
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Saturday, April 21, 5:15 pm
New Orleans Poetry Festival
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Wednesday, March 14, 6:00 pm
Why There Are Words
Octavia Books
HOUMA, LA
Saturday, March 3, 9:30 am
Jambalaya Writers’ Conference
Terrebonne Parish Main Library
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Tuesday, January 9, 6:00 pm
In Conversation with Nathaniel Rich
Garden District Book Shop
JACKSON, MS
Saturday, August 19
Mississippi Book Festival
COLUMBUS, MS
Thursday, August 17
Columbus Arts Council Writers’ Series
BAY ST. LOUIS, MS
Tuesday, May 9, 12:00 pm
Hancock County Library System
PASS CHRISTIAN, MS
Wednesday, April 12, 7:00 pm
Pass Christian Public Library
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Thursday, March 30, 6:00 pm
In Conversation with Taylor Brown
Garden District Book Shop
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Friday, March 24, 2:30 pm
Tennessee Williams Festival
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Wednesday, March 15, 8:00 pm
Blood Jet Reading Series
JACKSON, MS
Friday, February 10, 9:00 am
Conference on Humanities and Civic Life
in Mississippi, Millsaps College
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Friday, November 18, 6:00 pm
In Conversation with Nicholas Mainieri
Garden District Book Shop
JACKSON, MS
Tuesday, November 15, 4:30 pm
Visiting Writers Series (with Margaret McMullan)
Millsaps College
BATON ROUGE, LA
Saturday, October 29, 12:00 pm
Louisiana Book Festival
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Thursday, October 27, 6:00 pm
University of New Orleans (with Taylor Brown)
NASHVILLE, TN
Friday, October 14, 1:00 pm
Southern Festival of Books
JACKSON, MS
Saturday, August 20
Mississippi Book Festival
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Sunday, April 3, 1:00 pm
Tennessee Williams Festival
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Thursday, March 17, 7:00 pm
Nix Library
FAIRHOPE, AL
Tuesday, March 15, 6:00 pm
Page & Palette
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Wednesday, March 9, 12:00 pm
Tulane University Barnes & Noble
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Monday, March 7, 6:00 pm
Garden District Book Shop
BIRMINGHAM, AL
Sunday, March 6, 12:00 pm
Alabama Booksmith
JENSEN BEACH, FL
Saturday, March 5, 10:00 am
BookMania!
Martin County Library System
SOUTHERN PINES, NC
Wednesday, March 2, 5:00 pm
Country Bookshop
CHAPEL HILL, NC
Tuesday, March 1, 7:00 pm
Flyleaf Books
RALEIGH, NC
Monday, February 29, 7:00 pm
Quail Ridge Books & Music
SYLVA, NC
Saturday, February 27, 6:30 pm
City Lights Bookstore
NASHVILLE, TN
Thursday, February 25, 6:30 pm
Parnassus Books
MEMPHIS, TN
Wednesday, February 24, 6:30 pm
The Booksellers at Laurelwood
OXFORD, MS
Tuesday, February 23, 5:00 pm
Square Books
JACKSON, MS
Friday, February 19, 4:30 pm
Natasha Trethewey: In Conversation
Millsaps College
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Thursday, February 18, 6:00 pm
Octavia Books
JACKSON, MS
Tuesday, February 16, 5:00 pm
Lemuria Books