Low Country

Caroline Venable's Southern ancestry has brought her wealth, status, and affluent husband, along with a steady schedule of cocktail parties and luncheons at country clubs. In addition to being the official "one-woman welcome wagon" for young, eager talent that her husband, Clay, imports to their part of South Carolina to work for the family business, a hugely successful land-developing conglomerate, Caroline is the chatelaine of a magnificent home, hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and potential clients.

Clay understands why Caro drinks a bit too much, and he finds solace in the knowledge that she can go to the Lowcountry island her cherished grandfather bequeathed her. The island is untamed and seems to be eternal; it is a location of unparalleled, astounding beauty, and the one place Caroline can let her guard down and forget.

Caro has always been enthralled with the independence and energy of a group of wild ponies who roam the island. She is heartbroken to see that her husband must either develop the island or lose the business he has spent his whole life creating. Caroline's ancestry comes from the Lowcountry; it is the one thing she thought would never change. The island she loves would be tamed (and hence destroyed) by a resort, but what would happen to the wild ponies?

Driven to action and filled with a renewed sense of purpose, Caroline has to face the part of herself that drink and cautious avoidance have dulled. She also needs to reevaluate her priorities: what is so essential that it would cost her her life? Caroline finds an inner fortitude to fight for the island, her island, which makes her reevaluate her marriage, her place in society, and eventually her own identity.

The novel Low Country tells the tale of a woman's inner redemption and metamorphosis as her expectations and traditional Old South upbringing collide with the reckless riches of the modern South. It is masterfully narrated and represents Anne Rivers Siddons at her very finest.