A Sitting in St. James

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By Rita Williams-Garcia

Publisher Description

Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award!

7 starred reviews! "Monumental." —Booklist (starred review) * "A marathon masterpiece."—Kirkus (starred review) * "Necessary."—SLJ (starred review) * "Shocking and dramatic."—Shelf Awareness (starred review) * "Mesmerizing, confounding and vividly rendered."—Book Page (starred review) * "Williams-Garcia’s storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic."—Horn Book (starred review)

This astonishing novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human—and essential reading for both teens and adults grappling with the long history of American racism.

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait.

While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations—from the big house to out in the fields—of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved, come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts.

Rita Williams-Garcia is one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has been honored with the Children's Literature Lecture Award from the American Library Association.

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79 Reviews

3.5

Lauren Payne

Created about 2 months ago

Minor characters stand out Slow-paced Harsh Setting fits the story Boring prose Takes getting used to Racism Sexual assault

Devyn

Created 7 months ago

Realistic Heartbreaking

Rye

Created 7 months ago

JoyL

Created 8 months ago

“rating: pg-13+ for abusive sexual, and consensual sexual situations. no profanity / mild profanity. recommend: older HS and up. This is NOT a YA book, in my opinion. The sexual situations, abusive and consensual, are too much for ya. There were two options for the sex in this book, and both were pretty nearly on page, doors open: abuse on the part of owners toward their slaves or the gay forbidden sex of the inheriting son. The scene when Byron describes his father taking him to the brothel at age 12 for his first manly experience? Not YA. I respect what Williams-Garcia wanted to do with this book. She was creating a story to shine a light on injustice, cruelty, a caste system that created an age of terror for an entire group of people. She is presenting American history as foundational to the events of our current times. Yes. There is no denying that chattel slavery in the United States was a terrible thing and affects us to this day. But this book entirely made me question historical fiction. It is HARD to swim in a culture - 21st century - and write a truly historical perspective in a novel - mid 19th century. The way Pearce and Byron found each other, glimpses across the room and they just knew. The way Eugenie treated June, so welcoming and open. Thisbe and the artist who SEES her, and then rescues her. I just... those feel like very modern views. I find that more and more authors are allowing the perspectives and issues of their own time to affect their perspective of history, and how they present it. I hope that readers are able to perceive the difference. But if we are not reading the history itself, we will think that the historical fiction is the way things were THEN. But they weren't. In Wiliams-Garcia's end notes, she mentioned a book about LGBTQ issues through US history - I'll be adding that one to my tbr list, it's definitely an area I don't know enough about.”

Danielle

Created 11 months ago

About Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children’s Books. She is also the author of the NAACP Image Award–winning and National Book Award finalist Clayton Byrd Goes Underground; A Sitting in St. James, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner and Los Angeles Times Book Award winner; Like Sisters on the Homefront, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Blue Tights; and four ALA Best Books for Young Adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here; Every Time a Rainbow Dies, a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book; and Fast Talk on a Slow Track. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.