We’ve got a good feeling about the debut novel Wench (see earlier posts). Prepub reviews were great; the story brings to light a little-known, but fascinating piece of history, based on real events and the author is engaging (as proved by her interview on NPR last week; listen to it here).

Now, USA Today adds the icing to the cake by writing,

Readers entranced by Kathryn Stockett’s The Help…will be equally riveted by Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Wench, a brutally told fictional account of slave women forced to be the “mistresses” of their white masters in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Like The Help, Wench immerses readers in its characters’ complex emotional lives.

Most libraries bought small quantities (fewer than 1 copy per branch) and are showing holds of 10:1.

We first heard about Wench at a HarperCollins library buzz session. Check out the buzz on their Summer 2010 titles by clicking here (and enter for a chance to win a set of five Advance Readers Editions).

Wench Dolen Perkins Valdez Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Amistad – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 006170654X / 9780061706547 Unabridged Audio: Books on Tape Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 11:29 am and is filed under 2010/11 - Winter/Spring, Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.