The Story of Land and Sea

Set on the North Carolina coast during and following the American Revolution, this debut novel centers on Asa, owner of a small turpentine plantation, whose daughter, Helen, falls in love with soldier and sometime pirate John and goes to sea with him after the war when her father refuses to bless the marriage. Rounding out the cast of primary characters is Helen's slave, Moll, whose lack of choice in creating her own destiny is sharply contrasted with Helen's. Somewhat ironically, despite the setting in a time of war, it is the females' lives that are most at risk, as three generations of women succumb to childbirth or illness. There is a pervasive sense of loneliness and loss throughout the novel. Smith's spare prose and storytelling style is resonant of oral history or folk tales, and the early chapters focusing on John and his daughter Tabitha, and her desire for the sea, call to mind Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife. At first, this style creates something of a remove for the reader, and it's not until the story of John and Helen's courtship that one begins to be emotionally invested.