Tom Franklin is known for his Southern gothics (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Beth Ann Fennelly for her poetry (Tender Hooks). Husband and wife, they're teamed up on The Tilted World, staying close to home with an outstanding historical novel set against the disastrous Mississippi Flood of 1927.
April 1, 1927: Dixie Clay Holliver returns home to find her husband, Jesse, tied up by two Treasury Department "revenuers." Only her sharpshooting skills save him and their profitable still. He takes the men to nearby Hobnob Crossing, but she fears the worst. Meanwhile, two other agents, Ham Johnson and Ted Ingersoll, hear from Secretary of the Treasury Herbert Hoover about the missing original pair. He wants them found, quickly.
On the way, they stop to get supplies and come upon a shootout scene: three people dead, a baby crying. Ted, an orphan himself, wants to protect "junior." In Hobnob, he asks if any family is willing to take the infant. Dixie is mentioned; her beloved Jacob died a year ago.
The lives of Ted, Ham, Jesse and Dixie intersect in unexpected ways under the looming shadow of an ever-weakening levee. Franklin and Fennelly tell their poignant tale of family and love, suffering and courage with a graceful pathos, using beautiful, poetic language. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher