The release date for the English version of 'The House Girl' by
Tara Conklin is Feb 2013. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
A remarkable first book about justice, love, and family that weaves together the tales of a young, aspirational lawyer in modern New York and a fugitive house slave in Virginia in 1852
1852 in Virginia. Josephine Bell, 17, makes the decision to flee her failing tobacco plantation, where she works as a slave and takes care of her sick mistress, the budding artist Lu Anne Bell.
2004; New York City. A challenging and delicate assignment that could launch Lina Sparrow's career as an ambitious first-year associate at a premier law firm is given to her: she has to locate the "perfect plaintiff" to spearhead a historic class-action lawsuit that could result in trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.
Through her father, the well-known artist Oscar Sparrow, Lina learns about Josephine Bell and the ongoing debate in the art world over whether or not Josephine, her house slave, really created the famous paintings long credited to Lu Anne Bell. If Lina can discover a descendant of Josephine, it would be the ideal face for the reparations lawsuit. Lina questions her own family history and the truths her father has never shared while tracing the runaway girl's hazy path via ancient letters and plantation records: Why did Lina's mum pass away? And why won't he talk to anybody about her?
This scorching, gripping, and devastating narrative of art and history, love and secrets, moves between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York. It examines what it takes to right a wrong and wonders if truth is sometimes more essential than justice.