What Reviewers Are Saying
"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
"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
"By placing David and Molly’s stories side by side, Brown stages a natural comparison: Why does each character resort to violence? Are their actions justified? How are they treated in the aftermath? The disparity quickly becomes clear: Molly must go into hiding and live off the land, while David and his family can return home safely each night."
- The New York Times
“What is a crime? And should we consider something a crime if committed for the greater good? These are the central questions riding the undercarriage of Gregory Brown's graceful and compassionate debut novel, 'The Lowering Days,' a flashlight into the heart of a small Maine community perched on the precipice of the Penobscot River, its future and its past.”
- The Boston Globe
"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
"Brown writes a fluid, lyrical prose that escorts us deep into the emotional lives of his characters. As a novelist, he's half Barry Lopez, half Louise Erdrich."
- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A sweeping story with which many Mainers may be familiar -- about family dynamics, about what happens to a town once its main employer closes, about environmental degradation and about the complicated relationship between Indigenous people and white settlers."
- Bangor Daily News
“The Lowering Days is all about what happens when you don’t watch where you’re walking . . . Heartbreaking, gripping and compassionate."
- Portland Press Herald
“The Lowering Days is a remarkable work of fiction. Rarely does a first novel show such polish and promise for an author . . . Rich with color, emotion, suspense, and character . . . ”
- Kennebec Journal
"The Penobscot River runs through this story of a small town whose set-to-reopen paper mill represents economic hope to white residents and ecological destruction to Native residents and brings tensions in the community to a dangerous head."
- Downeast Magazine
"Achingly beautiful and bittersweet family saga. An absorbing, elemental story of human existence."
- Shelf Awareness
- Publishers Weekly
"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
"By placing David and Molly’s stories side by side, Brown stages a natural comparison: Why does each character resort to violence? Are their actions justified? How are they treated in the aftermath? The disparity quickly becomes clear: Molly must go into hiding and live off the land, while David and his family can return home safely each night."
- The New York Times
“What is a crime? And should we consider something a crime if committed for the greater good? These are the central questions riding the undercarriage of Gregory Brown's graceful and compassionate debut novel, 'The Lowering Days,' a flashlight into the heart of a small Maine community perched on the precipice of the Penobscot River, its future and its past.”
- The Boston Globe
"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
"Brown writes a fluid, lyrical prose that escorts us deep into the emotional lives of his characters. As a novelist, he's half Barry Lopez, half Louise Erdrich."
- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A sweeping story with which many Mainers may be familiar -- about family dynamics, about what happens to a town once its main employer closes, about environmental degradation and about the complicated relationship between Indigenous people and white settlers."
- Bangor Daily News
“The Lowering Days is all about what happens when you don’t watch where you’re walking . . . Heartbreaking, gripping and compassionate."
- Portland Press Herald
“The Lowering Days is a remarkable work of fiction. Rarely does a first novel show such polish and promise for an author . . . Rich with color, emotion, suspense, and character . . . ”
- Kennebec Journal
"The Penobscot River runs through this story of a small town whose set-to-reopen paper mill represents economic hope to white residents and ecological destruction to Native residents and brings tensions in the community to a dangerous head."
- Downeast Magazine
"Achingly beautiful and bittersweet family saga. An absorbing, elemental story of human existence."
- Shelf Awareness
Interviews About The Lowering Days
A Mighty Blaze: Authors Love Bookstores with Joe Moldover
Maine Public Radio All Books Considered with Cindy Han
Book Public on Texas Public Radio with Yvette Benavides
New England Public Media Summer Reads with Jill Kaufman
The Roundtable Northeast Public Radio with Joe Donahue
The Arik Korman Show on iHeart Radio with Arik Korman
The Premise Podcast with Jennifer Thompson
Reading and Writing Podcast with Jeff Rutherford
Maine Public Radio All Books Considered with Cindy Han
Book Public on Texas Public Radio with Yvette Benavides
New England Public Media Summer Reads with Jill Kaufman
The Roundtable Northeast Public Radio with Joe Donahue
The Arik Korman Show on iHeart Radio with Arik Korman
The Premise Podcast with Jennifer Thompson
Reading and Writing Podcast with Jeff Rutherford
What Writers Are Saying
“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 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
"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
"Unflinching, lyrical, and timely, The Lowering Days marks the emergence of a new and authentic voice in American letters. Brown is bona fide, a writer with incredible storytelling chops, yes, but also a poet's soul, and a balladeer's heart."
- Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Little Faith
“An intimate novel about a close-knit community at the mercy of two of the world’s most implacable forces -- history and nature. Gregory Brown renders the lives and landscapes of rural Maine with great power and greater compassion.”
- Madhuri Vijay, author of The Far Field
- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Chances Are...
“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
"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
"Unflinching, lyrical, and timely, The Lowering Days marks the emergence of a new and authentic voice in American letters. Brown is bona fide, a writer with incredible storytelling chops, yes, but also a poet's soul, and a balladeer's heart."
- Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Little Faith
“An intimate novel about a close-knit community at the mercy of two of the world’s most implacable forces -- history and nature. Gregory Brown renders the lives and landscapes of rural Maine with great power and greater compassion.”
- Madhuri Vijay, author of The Far Field
What Booksellers Are Saying About The Lowering Days
“In Gregory Brown's beautifully written, immersive, and profound debut, a doctor reflects on his 1980s childhood in a small town along Maine's Penobscot River, where his family became embroiled in complex legal, cultural, and environmental conflicts involving white townspeople and Indigenous Penobscot people. THE LOWERING DAYS is an extraordinary story of love, resentment, justice, and redemption that grapples with important, timely, and thought-provoking issues. A great choice for bookclubs."
- Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books
"When an obsolete paper mill is set on fire along the Penobscot River in northern Maine, the bonds and rifts between the Ames and Creel families are reignited. Wise, tender, and with a knack for pacing, this swirling debut explores the interrelation among nature, wonder, brotherly bonds, fathers, Native communities, violence, forgiveness, grief, the consequences of one’s actions, and love."
- Ben Groner, Parnassus Books
“Who owns the land and are they entitled to spoil its richness? How about water quality, fish and game? Gregory Brown has written a social, environmental and historical novel about an ages-old disagreement over what it means to own or to care for the land. The fate of the Penobscot River in Maine is at the center of these questions. The Penobscot Valley has relied on the local paper mill to employee and sustain families up and down the river, but the chemicals used have destroyed everything. When the maybe-to-be-reopened mill is burned down and a young Penobscot Nation member confesses to the action, fevers run high and the Ames family is caught in the middle. This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of how our waters and other parts of nature have been damaged, and the burden of heavy hearts involved in efforts to reclaim our natural beauty. It’s well-written, and spot-on about nature, families and the devastation that can reign. A highly recommended debut.”
- Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore
“This is a very, very worthy novel where fierce love for people and place drive the pace. Crossed allegiances, native cultures and rights run up against the local need for jobs. Largely folks are trying to do the right thing yet not every right thing can coexist with someone else's right thing. Gregory Brown has created a rich and nuanced novel that also gives nature her due in beautiful prose. The Lowering Days is a novel to get lost in.”
- Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfield’s Books
“Gregory Brown’s richly textured descriptions of human nature and the beauty of the Maine wilderness are the foundation of this insightful story of a town torn between industry and the environment. Set along Maine’s Penobscot river on land claimed by the Indigenous Penobscot people, a fire at the paper mill sets residents against each other as long held prejudices and grudges come to bear. When the publisher of the local newspaper prints a letter written by an Indigenous teen claiming responsibility for the fire, she unknowingly starts a series of events that will have long term repercussions on her family. A moving story made all the more powerful by the perfectly observed details that bring it to life.”
- Luisa Smith, Book Passage
“A bighearted, moving debut. ‘The Lowering Days’ is a finely wrought portrait of rural Maine that features beautiful writing about the natural world and a wide range of characters whose contentions escalate to a fiery crescendo. It is a story true to its locale—the Penobscot River watershed and the crucial presence of its indigenous peoples—and near mythic in its structure. Brown, with strikingly prescient narration, considers issues of history, ancestry, love, and land and weaves them into a tale humming with dramatic tension.”
- Josh Popkin, The Odyssey Bookshop
“The lush, green riverbanks of the Penobscot River in Maine are more than a setting for this lovely novel, they are its heart. The story is a stark reminder of the differences between those who believe the land is there to use and those who believe it should be protected and preserved."
- Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books & Music
"A debut novel set in 1980s Maine, beautifully written and thoroughly engrossing, tells a layered story of the far-reaching effects and events centered around a bankrupt paper mill that is set to reopen, but is instead burned to the ground in an act of arson. Rich with local legends and Penobscot lore, filled with reverence for the natural world, this powerful story of fragile family loyalties and the desire to protect what you love features a vibrant cast of perfectly human characters that had me invested in each and every outcome."
- Linda Then, Northshire Bookstore
- Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books
"When an obsolete paper mill is set on fire along the Penobscot River in northern Maine, the bonds and rifts between the Ames and Creel families are reignited. Wise, tender, and with a knack for pacing, this swirling debut explores the interrelation among nature, wonder, brotherly bonds, fathers, Native communities, violence, forgiveness, grief, the consequences of one’s actions, and love."
- Ben Groner, Parnassus Books
“Who owns the land and are they entitled to spoil its richness? How about water quality, fish and game? Gregory Brown has written a social, environmental and historical novel about an ages-old disagreement over what it means to own or to care for the land. The fate of the Penobscot River in Maine is at the center of these questions. The Penobscot Valley has relied on the local paper mill to employee and sustain families up and down the river, but the chemicals used have destroyed everything. When the maybe-to-be-reopened mill is burned down and a young Penobscot Nation member confesses to the action, fevers run high and the Ames family is caught in the middle. This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of how our waters and other parts of nature have been damaged, and the burden of heavy hearts involved in efforts to reclaim our natural beauty. It’s well-written, and spot-on about nature, families and the devastation that can reign. A highly recommended debut.”
- Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore
“This is a very, very worthy novel where fierce love for people and place drive the pace. Crossed allegiances, native cultures and rights run up against the local need for jobs. Largely folks are trying to do the right thing yet not every right thing can coexist with someone else's right thing. Gregory Brown has created a rich and nuanced novel that also gives nature her due in beautiful prose. The Lowering Days is a novel to get lost in.”
- Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfield’s Books
“Gregory Brown’s richly textured descriptions of human nature and the beauty of the Maine wilderness are the foundation of this insightful story of a town torn between industry and the environment. Set along Maine’s Penobscot river on land claimed by the Indigenous Penobscot people, a fire at the paper mill sets residents against each other as long held prejudices and grudges come to bear. When the publisher of the local newspaper prints a letter written by an Indigenous teen claiming responsibility for the fire, she unknowingly starts a series of events that will have long term repercussions on her family. A moving story made all the more powerful by the perfectly observed details that bring it to life.”
- Luisa Smith, Book Passage
“A bighearted, moving debut. ‘The Lowering Days’ is a finely wrought portrait of rural Maine that features beautiful writing about the natural world and a wide range of characters whose contentions escalate to a fiery crescendo. It is a story true to its locale—the Penobscot River watershed and the crucial presence of its indigenous peoples—and near mythic in its structure. Brown, with strikingly prescient narration, considers issues of history, ancestry, love, and land and weaves them into a tale humming with dramatic tension.”
- Josh Popkin, The Odyssey Bookshop
“The lush, green riverbanks of the Penobscot River in Maine are more than a setting for this lovely novel, they are its heart. The story is a stark reminder of the differences between those who believe the land is there to use and those who believe it should be protected and preserved."
- Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books & Music
"A debut novel set in 1980s Maine, beautifully written and thoroughly engrossing, tells a layered story of the far-reaching effects and events centered around a bankrupt paper mill that is set to reopen, but is instead burned to the ground in an act of arson. Rich with local legends and Penobscot lore, filled with reverence for the natural world, this powerful story of fragile family loyalties and the desire to protect what you love features a vibrant cast of perfectly human characters that had me invested in each and every outcome."
- Linda Then, Northshire Bookstore
