Review

"Lum is an engaging portrait of a village in the Virginia Blue Ridge during the Great Depression. Lum's courageous journey to selfhood is profound and moving, and a metaphor for the process of self-acceptance necessary for anyone who doesn't fit into traditional social norms."
--Lisa Alther, author of Kinfolks

"Libby Ware has written with a rich new southern voice and captured the dying art of storytelling in her debut novel."
--Ann Hite, author of the award-winning Ghost On Black Mountain and Georgia Author of the Year, 2011

" . . .a startlingly good debut novel."
--Atlanta Magazine

" . . . captivating . . . Ware writes with a charismatic Southern voice that will appeal to readers of Ron Rash, Lee Smith, and Wiley Cash. I read Lum from start to finish in one day and relished its fresh characters and take on history... Select if for your book club, and get ready for a rip-roaring discussion."
--Hungry for Good Books

" . . . a treat for those who appreciate character-centered historical fiction. Lum's courageous journey toward independence makes her a heroine worth fighting for, and readers will find themselves missing her company after the final page turns."
--Historical Novels Review

About the Author

Libby Ware lived the first five years of her life in West Virginia, and spent some childhood summers in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. She is the owner of Toadlily Books, an antiquarian book business, and is also a book collector. The beginning of Lum, excerpted as a short story, "The Circuit," was published in Feminist Studies in 2009, and was a finalist in the Poets & Writers Award for Georgia Writers, judged by Jennifer Egan. Ware lives in Atlanta with her two dogs, Tilly and Robin, and a mile away from her partner, Charlene Ball. Lum won the ALA Stonewall Barbara Gittings Honor Award.