Nineteenth-century fiction based on a family history of South Carolina:
As a child, Nannie Hayes endures fire, Civil War, loss, theft, and relocation with her Charleston, South Carolina, family. These shocks naturally compel her to stay protectively close to her family. She does her best to ignore a recurring dream and a message facilitated by a séance medium until an unassuming farmer confesses all and Nannie must make the agonizing choice that will define her life’s path.
Endorsements
In Tupper’s Coins, Betsy Reeder renders the Civil War home front in striking detail, centering on a Southern family grieving the loss of their eldest son to a war they didn’t choose. Told through the voice of Nannie, a young girl during the war who grows into the doting daughter of a grief-stricken mother after, this novel offers a delightful blend of mysticism and historical depth. Daughter of a shopkeeper from Connecticut, Nannie struggles to find her place in the world while the ever-displaced family ventures from Charleston to Greenville and back again. With a trove of characters vying for marriage and more, the book evokes the literature of the era, hinting of Alcott and Austen. In a world in the which the youngest daughter was often marked as caretaker to her aging parents, the reader roots for the quiet yet snarky Nannie to escape from her mother’s narcissistic clutches. In the end Nannie must decide whether to fulfill family obligations or become her own woman.
Tupper’s Coins is about family and hope in a world torn asunder. It reminds us that history is rarely as clearly drawn as we would like to believe.
–Culley Holderfield, author of Hemlock Hollow
Tupper’s Coins follows one Southern family’s poignant struggles during and after the Civil War. With clarity and precision, Reeder captures the heartbreaking destruction of Charleston and the valiant efforts of its people to rebuild their lives and their city after enduring so much loss.
—Donna Meredith, editor of Southern Literary Review and author of Buried Seeds and The Glass Madonna
Please see link below for purchases.
Betsy Reeder, Writer 