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About the book
If you paid attention, you could see the entire unfolding of human history in a story . . .
Growing up, David Almerin Ames and his brothers, Link and Simon, thought of the wild patch of Maine where they lived along the Penobscot River as theirs. Running down the state like a spine, the river shared its name with the people of the Penobscot Nation, whose ancestral territory included the entire Penobscot watershed, the land upon which the Ames family eventually made their home.
The brothers’ affinity for the natural world derives from their iconoclastic parents, Arnoux, a romantic artist and Vietnam War deserter who builds boats by hand, and Falon, an activist journalist who runs The Lowering Days, a community newspaper that gives equal voice to indigenous and white issues.
But the boys’ childhood dreamscape is shattered when a Penobscot teenager sets fire to a shuttered area paper mill on the eve of its possible reopening in an act of defiance seeking to protect the land from further harm. The fire reveals a stark truth for the residents of the Penobscot Valley. For many, the mill is a lifeline, providing working class jobs they need to survive. Within the Penobscot Nation, the mill brings only heartache, spewing toxic chemicals and wastewater products that poison the river’s fish and plants.
Call it criminal mischief or environmental justice, the fire sets loose a series of long-simmering grievances, ending in a cycle of violence that tears apart the community and two families and changes the trajectory of David's life.
Evocative, atmospheric, and pulsating with the rhythms of the natural world, The Lowering Days is a meditation on the flow and weight of history, an exploration of the power and fragility of love, an examination of the dangerous fault lines underlying families, and an offering to an enduring land where stories are created and told.
The brothers’ affinity for the natural world derives from their iconoclastic parents, Arnoux, a romantic artist and Vietnam War deserter who builds boats by hand, and Falon, an activist journalist who runs The Lowering Days, a community newspaper that gives equal voice to indigenous and white issues.
But the boys’ childhood dreamscape is shattered when a Penobscot teenager sets fire to a shuttered area paper mill on the eve of its possible reopening in an act of defiance seeking to protect the land from further harm. The fire reveals a stark truth for the residents of the Penobscot Valley. For many, the mill is a lifeline, providing working class jobs they need to survive. Within the Penobscot Nation, the mill brings only heartache, spewing toxic chemicals and wastewater products that poison the river’s fish and plants.
Call it criminal mischief or environmental justice, the fire sets loose a series of long-simmering grievances, ending in a cycle of violence that tears apart the community and two families and changes the trajectory of David's life.
Evocative, atmospheric, and pulsating with the rhythms of the natural world, The Lowering Days is a meditation on the flow and weight of history, an exploration of the power and fragility of love, an examination of the dangerous fault lines underlying families, and an offering to an enduring land where stories are created and told.
Advanced praise for the book
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“In The Lowering Days, Gregory Brown gives us a lush, almost mythic portrait of a very specific place and time that feels all the more universal for its singularity. There’s magic here.”
- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Chances Are... |
"The Lowering Days is expansive in its scope and intimate in its details, a lyrical and sincere work by a novelist fully alive to the natural world."
- Anthony Marra, New York Times-bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena |
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“The Lowering Days is a masterful debut, a tender and elegant meditation on the thorny bonds of family and community, the enduring trauma of environmental degradations, and the salvific power of stories. At once lyrical and spare, graceful and steely-eyed, Mr. Brown’s prose conjures the work of Louise Erdrich and Jim Harrison. Every word is a gift and a revelation, and a call for reckoning."
- Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times-bestselling author of Valentine |
"Brown’s dynamic debut shines a light on a small town’s fraught history in Maine’s Penobscot River valley. . . Brown poetically depicts the bucolic backdrop and grounds the action amid forested hillsides 'deep and green and smoky with the scent of pine.' Lyrical and gorgeously written, Brown’s memorable outing does justice to a complicated web of issues."
- Publishers Weekly |
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"Brown tells a gripping tale. And in his hands the Penobscot region of the 1980s and 90s with its eccentric cast of Vietnam veterans, hippy fugitives, gruff lobstermen, and Penobscot tribal members comes wonderfully to life."
- Kirkus |
"Brown’s debut novel weaves together the lush setting of the Penobscot River in Maine and disparate characters struggling to coexist on a verdant, alluring land... David and his family find love and survive tragedy, while profound truths, the mournful beauty of the land, and mythologies encoded within the people who live there are revealed."
- Booklist |
