A lot of non events in this book. After the flood the book lost momentum with long car drives, beach days , cleaning rooms and hiding from people. Many marriages fail for whatever reasons but responsible parents generally compromise on child or children custody. The thought of kidnapping your own child is a solution for an unstable individual . The way a child perceives life events and an adult cannot be compared and unfortunately the author does this at the end.

I am SUPER late on this title, but I finally picked it up this month and enjoyed it.

I found that some elements of this book didn't land with me because I just found it hard to relate to the environment or any of the characters, but I still really appreciated a lot about the book. The writing was interesting, and there were some passages that really stood out.

Thanks for sharing!

i cannot give an honest review of this book, because I never read it. This is not in my genre of reading style. This book was downloaded to my account without my knowledge.

The first third of this book was great! But when characters in books do something so stupid like kidnap a kid and think they're going to get away with it by going to Florida? I can't go on, their judgement is too flawed and I can't relate to the rest of the story. This had the making of a great book and they squandered it.

4.0 - I"m not sure why I'm drawn to "religious characters having a lapse in faith" novels, but they resonate with me - this one was excellent. Great depth of character, both in main and supporting characters, and a plot that kept things moving. Lovely.

I am a member of the ALA Carnegie Medal Committee. This title made the 2019 Longlist but it did not make the Shortlist. See the complete Shortlist <a href="http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carnegieadult/short-lists"> here.

This is a wonderful book about discovering yourself and what you believe in the midst of turmoil. Asher Sharp is a pastor at a church with strong beliefs that he finds himself questioning. He is coming to understand God and himself in a different way and is concerned for his son and his upbringing as well. After a flood, Asher, his family, and his church don't open themselves up to welcome gay neighbors who have also lost everything in the disaster and who helped rescue others. Asher becomes conflicted and when he and his wife can't see eye to eye he takes his son and heads south to the Florida Keys to look for his brother who he did not stand up for years before when he came out. This is an touching story about family and personal growth and change.

As a Tennessean, I really loved this book and found it inevitably plotted and perfectly written. A fundamentalist preacher’s world is shaken up by a flood in his community, and the compassionate rescue actions of a neighboring gay couple make him deeply ashamed when his church refuses to allow them to attend. As a lay preacher, he knows that God is love, but he comes to realize that he does not sense love in the stony hearts of these judgmental congregants.
After a split with his wife, he basically kidnaps his own son and drives blindly until he turns up in Florida, where he has time and space to reassess his life.
This is written with such honesty. I know these people and places, and it’s spot-on. I wonder, though, if a book like this will reach its ideal audience, because for me Silas House was preaching to the choir. Would people who resemble the sanctimonious church folks be able, or willing, to read this book and be changed by it? I don’t mean to get political, but I was concerned that those who would be the most blessed by this will not read it.

I found this book to be a little too heavy handed, but otherwise I loved it. It demonstrates the power of tolerance and love, while also showing that for some, getting to that place can require quite a bit of soul searching, especially if you must examine your religious beliefs. At a time when there is so much intolerance in the world, this is a perfect book.

Beautifully written book with a great message and strong characters. It deals with the question of how a man of religion reconciles his calling with doing what's "right." A timely book.

Silas House



SouthernmostThe author Silas House has been on my radar screen for a long time, he's been writing consistently for almost twenty years, often mentioning Lee Smith as one of his mentors. So I wonder why I'm only just now getting around to reading one of his novels? Perhaps it was my constant quest for books to review for the Florida Book Page (http://news.wgcu.org/programs/florida-book-page) that finally brought me to him and his new book "Southernmost," the title a reference to that concrete buoy at the tip of Key West that signals the farthest southern latitude in the continental United States - a ubiquitous lure for selfie aficionados.

Mr. House is billed as a "southern writer," a term that seems limiting, and yet one that we readers get immediately. His writing style is relaxed, conversations feel folksy. But this simplicity doesn't hide his penchant for vividly painted details and gorgeous descriptions of the natural world, the likely result of his work as an environmental activist, when he isn't teaching writing at Berea College that is, or advocating for gender rights issues. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/opinion/the-battle-for-gay-rights-in-rural-america.html?_r=0

As the book opens, a devastating flood is ravishing the small Tennessee town where Asher Sharp is the local preacher, the man everyone turns to for support in all things great and small. Farms, animals, and whole homes are swept away in a tragedy of biblical proportions just as Pastor Asher has begun to question his belief in a just, loving, but sometimes vengeful God. His crisis of faith drives a wedge between him and his more rigidly pious wife Lydia, a wedge that becomes a chasm when she refuses to shelter a gay couple that have just lost everything to the tumultuous storm.

Though Jimmy and Stephen risked their lives to rescue neighbors and were the ones who found Lydia and Asher's boy Justin before the waters swallowed him up, the couple was shunned by everyone except Asher and his sensitive boy when they appeared together for Sunday services. In a moment of righteous anger Asher lashes out at his congregation for their paucity of generosity, their meanness of spirit. A woman with a cell phone captures Asher crying tears of frustration as he exhorts his people to open their hearts and a viral post on the internet becomes the catalyst for all the sorrow and miscommunication that follows.

Just spending time with Justin, so bright, articulate, and hyper-sensitive to emotional imbalance, is worth the time you spend in this book. Silas House writes with generosity and a keen understanding of the human condition, delicately exploring the loss of a belief system, the ways in which our past informs our present, the damage parents can do in the name of love, and the ways in which we form new, non-traditional families to replace our broken ones.

The writing is uneven, poetic and descriptive in parts, and then it lapses into childish dialogue. The author tends to stray into heavy handedness in the effort to push his message instead of letting the actions and conversations reveal what needs to be said. I gave up half-way through this one.

This book begins in Tennessee after a huge flood destroys a small community and brings two gay men into the home of an evangelical preacher, his wife, and son. The wife’s treatment of this couple helps cleaves their marriage and the congregation of her husband Asher. We learn that Asher has a familial secret that drives his compassion for the gay couple. After losing custody of his son based on his seemingly irrational defense of same sex couples, he runs away with his son to Florida. I struggled with my feelings towards this action. On the one hand I supported his decision to leave his wife and church but essentially kidnapping his son left me conflicted; it was hard to root for him. The storyline of starting a new life somewhere else, being mysterious about their past and ultimately falling in love with another woman, felt inevitable and a little contrived. However, I did really enjoy the story and thought the characters were well developed. I appreciated the relationship between Asher and his son Justin.

To be honest, I didn't complete this novel. I was really loving the first third - the writing is so great. But when Asher takes his son and run - gosh it just started feeling like 4 other books I've read recently. Read it for the writing! And if you aren't burned out on novels about men on the raw end of a divorce kidnapping their own kids - read it for that!

This is the first book I’ve read by Silas House, and I found his writing beautiful and poetic. I felt like he captured the setting perfectly, it shined as its own Southern gem!

In the wake of a devastating flood along Tennessee’s Cumberland River, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp meets sharp resistance when he welcomes two gay men into his house and his congregation. Troubled by the intolerance of those he loves – and still guilty over his own behavior when his brother came out of the closet – Asher battles back, only to lose his marriage, his church and custody of his son, Justin. He then makes the fateful decision to kidnap Justin and drive to Key West, where he suspects his estranged brother is living. A road trip that begins with a crisis of conscience and faith turns into a journey of self-discovery as Asher seeks acceptance in a community where difference is celebrated. Still, he must face the consequences of his actions if he wants true forgiveness. A master storyteller, House shows a keen understanding of the modern South wrestling with change. (Algonquin Books, $26.95, June 5)
Minneapolis Star Tribune

4.5 stars.

"'Sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry and as long as we're alive, we can deal with everything else. You know?'"

Shortly after the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage, a flood ravages preacher Asher Sharp's small Tennessee town, leaving many in his congregation homeless or with significant property damage. In the wake of the flood, Asher offers shelter to a gay couple, and they begin to visit his church, which roils his congregation to no end, as many believe the flood was caused by the Supreme Court's decision.

Asher's simple act of kindness emphasizes the cracks in his marriage to Lydia, devout and unyielding in her religious beliefs. But for the first time in a long time, Asher realizes that it is not his job to judge, it is his job to offer kindness, shelter, tolerance. These are qualities he didn't offer his own older brother, Luke, when he admitted his homosexuality—Asher turned his back on his brother and Luke left town, never to return again, although he has sent a few cryptic postcards through the years. This time, Asher is determined not to make the same mistakes by letting hate in his heart.

After delivering an emotional sermon preaching tolerance, Asher's congregation votes to remove him from his job. Lydia files for divorce as well as full custody of their nine-year-old son, Justin. Although his faith that he made the right decision is stronger than ever, he cannot face the idea of only seeing his son on occasional weekends and vacations, but he is unwilling to say he was wrong to call for tolerance and acceptance of all people.

With nowhere to turn, Asher takes Justin late one night and the two flee to Key West, where Luke's postcards were sent from. Asher hopes to reunite with his brother after all these years, and perhaps find peace at the same time. But a journey made in fear of being captured is an exhausting one, and Justin vacillates between wanting to be with Asher and wanting to return home to his mother and grandmother. He doesn't understand why all of the adults in his life can't simply agree with one another so that life could return to normal.

In Key West, Asher and Justin find their place in the colorful community, and learn powerful lessons about faith, trust, belief, forgiveness, and the redemptive power of love. But Asher knows in his heart that this happiness must be fleeting, for if he is to teach his son anything beyond not allowing hate in his heart, he must do the right thing and return to Tennessee with Justin.

Is love enough to overcome life's problems, to turn people away from hatred? How do we reconcile the beliefs we've been taught with the way life changes? How do we allow ourselves to let our guard down when we've experienced hurt and prejudice? In his exquisite and emotional new book, Southernmost, Silas House strives to answer those questions.

I thought this was a beautifully written, poignant book, one which really made me think. It's not an unfamiliar story, particularly in these turbulent times where the law says one thing but some people's beliefs cause them to act differently, but it still touches the heart. House's prose is lyrical and his imagery is evocative, and he gives both Asher and Justin distinctive and memorable voices to tell the story.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I found it completely compelling and a very fast read. I have often wondered how members of the clergy deal with reconciling what they've been taught, the words they live by, with the world they live in, and Southernmost captures that struggle, as well as the struggle to belong, to be understood, and to be loved and accepted for who you are, not judged for whom you love.

NetGalley and Algonquin Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This book was well written and very fun to read. The characters were great and I enjoyed the world building. The author does a great job at introducing the characters and moving the plot along. There were a few things that I didn't like, but it wasn't enough to really sway me one way or the other. It's definitely a story that I can get lost in and both feel for the characters. It is definitely a go-to novel that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a great read. Definitely a highly recommended read that I think everyone will enjoy.

Asher is a father, a preacher, a husband, a brother, struggling with the culture of belief he finds himself in the center or. In the novel, Southernmost, A timely novel, Southernmost deals with the conflict of coming to terms with and standing up for what you believe, even when you know that in doing so you will risk losing everything.

As an Evangelical preacher, Asher has always seen the world through one set of conservatively religious lenses, causing him to reject his gay brother. A catastrophic flood is the catalyst of change for Asher. He finds himself welcoming a gay couple into his church, coming to terms with how wrongly he treated his own brother, and how he can no longer stay in a marriage with a woman whose understanding of God's love is so different from his own. After separating from his wife, losing a custody battle for his son, and being fired from his church, Asher makes a decision that will change his life and his son's life forever.

Homophobia, faith, and what truly makes a family are topics that many readers will identify with. Although painful at times, the author does such a good job of covering each topic with delicate diligence, careful to not overwhelm the reader with too much tension or pressure. This story takes you on a ride that you know won't end well but you can't help but want to stay on the ride with these characters regardless, desperate to see how they will grow and change along the way.

The relationships in this story are honest and believable, never trite or corny. Asher is a man filled with a love and compassion for others that makes living in this world difficult. His love for his son is powerful and causes him to act irrationally at times, but it is a passion that any parent will be able to relate to. I enjoyed this raw and truthful story. I appreciated the realistic portrayal that standing up for what's right, not what's popular in your particular culture, can be a burdensome choice that might leave you isolated and alone. But through Asher's journey, it was made clear to me that although burdensome, standing in your truth can also lead you to find a new loving community through the struggle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for a free copy of Southernmost in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.

Let me begin my saying I love the writer Silas House! However, I did not connect with this book in the way I have with his other works...and I don't really know why :( All of the elements were there that would indicate I would love this book including a tender, kind man who questions his religion when he finds it lacking in humanity, who explores his past misdeeds and sets his sights on making them right, and one who loves his son and wants to do right by him at all costs. This book was timely, dealing with small town mentality, religious inflexibility, marriage equality, child custody, and grief that never leaves. I liked this book...but I should have loved it and be recommending it to everyone I know. Overall, this book was "just ok" for me; I hope to come back to it at a later date and give it another chance.