PUTNAM COUNTY
A single page into Wanda Morris’ sophomore novel was enough for me to understand why the Georgia Writers Association dubbed her “Mystery Author of the Year.”
Anywhere You Run, published by William Morrow in October 2022, follows two sisters on the run in the Jim Crow South. After a confrontation with a white man turns deadly, 22-year-old Violet Richards is forced to flee her home in Jackson, Mississippi, knowing that if the police were to find her, the color of her skin alone would be enough to put her behind bars – or worse.
Violet leaves behind her sister, Marigold, an aspiring lawyer working with the Mississippi Summer Project to register Black voters.
However, Marigold, too, holds secrets of her own.
As Violet and Marigold separately make their way up north, they see first-hand how racial tensions wax and wane across state lines, but – despite the promise of a more peaceful existence – never dissipate completely.
The story oozes with atmosphere, and Morris’ authenticity and attention to detail are apparent on every page.
From the clothes they wear to the language they use, even idiosyncrasies like calling collect from a payphone, each scene drops you right into the summer of 1964, a time period that feels so foreign in some ways, but hauntingly familiar in others.
Running parallel to the story of the sisters is a mystery involving the killing of three civil rights workers, but voter suppression isn’t the only issue Morris tackles between the pages.
Her characters call attention to women’s rights, police brutality, and violence against the LGBTQ community. She forces readers to stare our history square in the eye – the good, the bad, and especially the ugly – and wonder why, all these years later, so much remains the same.
“Change often worked like that,” Morris muses in chapter four. “Desperately needed, slow to come, and life-altering on its arrival.” Change, we’ve learned over the last few years, can also be reversed and withheld, battled and blocked. A book like this, though – a brave and unflinching look at some of our nation’s most shameful days – serves as a reminder that it’s also worth fighting for.
Stories like this are desperately needed, and I’m so glad Wanda Morris has arrived.
Wanda Morris will be Georgia Writers Museum’s Meet the Author presenter on Aug. 1, with doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start. Tickets for this special event are $45 each ($40 each for two or more tickets), or tables of six are available for $200 (a savings of $40).
Contact Georgia Writers Museum or visit georgiawritersmuseum.org to register and pre-order a copy of Anywhere You Run. Morris will be signing books following her presentation.
- Contributed by The New York Times bestselling author Stacy Willingham