There was another South in the 1960s,
one far removed from
the marches and bombings and turmoil in the streets that
were broadcast on the evening news. It was a place of
inner turmoil, where ordinary people struggled to right
themselves on a social landscape that was dramatically
shifting beneath their feet. This is the world of Valerie
Fraser Luesse’s stunning debut, Missing Isaac.
It is
1965 when black field hand Isaac Reynolds goes
missing from the tiny, unassuming town of Glory, Alabama.
The townspeople’s reactions range from concern to
indifference, but one boy will stop at nothing to find out
what happened to his unlikely friend. White, wealthy, and
fatherless, young Pete McLean has nothing to gain and
everything to lose in his relentless search for Isaac. In
the process, he will discover much more than he bargained
for. Before it’s all over, Pete—and the people he loves
most—will have to blur the hard lines of race, class, and
religion. And what they discover about themselves may
change some of them forever.