Genre Fiction
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Booth
Best Book of the Year
Real Simple • AARP • USA Today • NPR • Virginia Living
Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize
From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.
In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth-breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one-is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.
As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.
Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.
Real Simple • AARP • USA Today • NPR • Virginia Living
Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize
From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.
In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth-breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one-is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.
As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.
Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.
Editorial Reviews
Most Anticipated Books 2022
Kirkus Reviews • Entertainment Weekly •Virginia Living • Veranda • The Millions • Medium • CNN
One of New York Post's Best Books of the Month
"Gripping novel….Booth is historical fiction, but it's impossible to ignore the resonance with present-day America." -NPR
"[Fowler] demonstrates how family tragedies ripple out from the source, causing trauma on an exponential scale. It's hard to read her story of the Booth family and not think of those whose lives have been upended by senseless acts of personal or political violence….To know Booth, to fully reckon with who he was and to grapple with why he did what he did, is to have a window on the modern United States." -Los Angeles Review of Books
"Fowler's riveting saga explores these strains of familial devotion and sorrow connecting the colorful Booth brothers and sisters." –Washington Post
"An ambitious novel . . . Slow-burning and rich, it illuminates America's core contradictions." -People Magazine
"Vignetted at the edges, full of portents, omens and mysterious reversals of fate . . . [Fowler's] sentences often sing." –The New York Times Book Review
"Fate, history, and chance collide in Karen Joy Fowler's riveting historical novel. . . . What elevates Booth is the granular texture of what's beneath the bald facts: the how and the myriad whats and whys, the truths. And there is also Fowler's trademark dark humor. . . . A massive achievement. In it, Fowler weaves history, family culture, and human cruelties into an insightful reckoning of a past that seems too much a prologue to our American present." -Boston Globe
"Booth doesn't hold anyone in judgment; like all the best literature, it seeks to better understand the human heart in all its flawed complexity. It's a haunting book, not just for all its literal ghosts, but for its suggestion that those ghosts still have not been ex...
Kirkus Reviews • Entertainment Weekly •Virginia Living • Veranda • The Millions • Medium • CNN
One of New York Post's Best Books of the Month
"Gripping novel….Booth is historical fiction, but it's impossible to ignore the resonance with present-day America." -NPR
"[Fowler] demonstrates how family tragedies ripple out from the source, causing trauma on an exponential scale. It's hard to read her story of the Booth family and not think of those whose lives have been upended by senseless acts of personal or political violence….To know Booth, to fully reckon with who he was and to grapple with why he did what he did, is to have a window on the modern United States." -Los Angeles Review of Books
"Fowler's riveting saga explores these strains of familial devotion and sorrow connecting the colorful Booth brothers and sisters." –Washington Post
"An ambitious novel . . . Slow-burning and rich, it illuminates America's core contradictions." -People Magazine
"Vignetted at the edges, full of portents, omens and mysterious reversals of fate . . . [Fowler's] sentences often sing." –The New York Times Book Review
"Fate, history, and chance collide in Karen Joy Fowler's riveting historical novel. . . . What elevates Booth is the granular texture of what's beneath the bald facts: the how and the myriad whats and whys, the truths. And there is also Fowler's trademark dark humor. . . . A massive achievement. In it, Fowler weaves history, family culture, and human cruelties into an insightful reckoning of a past that seems too much a prologue to our American present." -Boston Globe
"Booth doesn't hold anyone in judgment; like all the best literature, it seeks to better understand the human heart in all its flawed complexity. It's a haunting book, not just for all its literal ghosts, but for its suggestion that those ghosts still have not been ex...
Readers Top Reviews
PCF LondonClaire
An excellent book. A gripping account of the Booth family. Not only a good read but an interesting insight into the social, political, and racial issues of the time.
Marlene PCF Londo
Booth was a wonderful read, adding keen historic insight with current interpretation. Well written, a "new story" of an old event. The day to day lives of the characters were believable, with the author transporting the reader to time and place. Highly recommended.
Norman HousleyJoh
Booth did not grip me at all. To be fair I am not a fan of historical fiction, but I am very interested in the way slavery divided Antebellum America and hoped this novel would illuminate that issue. I can’t say it did, though Fowler provides a meticulous recreation of rural Maryland and Baltimore. The main problem was that I found the ups and downs (mainly downs) of this sprawling bohemian family both confusing and tedious. The first third of the novel hinges on the flawed brilliance of the patriarch Junius Brutus Booth, but we get only a vague sense of his charisma. There is a vast amount of detail, including a bizarre excursion to Panama, that doesn’t contribute anything, and the prose style is dense, with very little dialogue. So while there are touching moments along the way, this proved to be a hard slog.
Cathryn ConroyNor
A warning. That is what this book is. A chilling, daunting and, perhaps, prophetic warning. And you don't even have to be a particularly astute reader to see that. This is the personal life story of one of the most despised and reviled assassins in American history, but instead of being told from the point of view of John Wilkes Booth, it is told from the perspective of three of his siblings. This is a brilliant and compelling historical novel that is firmly grounded in prodigious research and sweetened with an imagined rendering of the Booth family daily lives, thoughts, and conversations. Written by Karen Joy Fowler and longlisted (as of this writing) for the prestigious 2022 Booker Prize, this is the story of one American family that mirrors the divisions and hatreds that consumed our nation in the mid-1800s. Junius Brutus Booth is a highly revered and hugely popular Shakespearean actor. Even without the benefit of mass media, he is a celebrity. Junius is harboring a big, dark secret, so he moves his wife, Mary Ann, and their children—eventually there are 10 children, although four die in childhood—to what he considers a secret farm in Bel Air, Maryland. Junius is away touring with his theater troupe nine months of the year, leaving the family on their own and often without money. The ninth child in this brood and the obvious favorite of everyone is John Wilkes. He is charming, brave, and daring. This novel is told through the eyes of three of John's siblings: sisters Rosalie and Asia and brother Edwin. The siblings are so different from each other! Rosalie is a slightly physically deformed spinster, growing more bitter by the years. Asia is beautiful but can be coldhearted and even cruel. At one point in the book, she is described as "all ice and iron." Edwin is the only one in the family who makes money, but he is a raging alcoholic. The family eventually move to Baltimore, and when Junius's deep, dark secret is revealed, it causes a scandal for the entire family. The children grow up, and Edwin and John become actors. Edwin rises to fame and a bit of fortune; John is mediocre. But John has passionate feelings about the South's position in the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln—feelings that horrify his family. These feelings eventually consume him until he assassinates the president during a stage performance at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. Interspersed throughout the book are snippets about Lincoln—what he is doing at the same point in time, as well as brief excerpts from his speeches and letters. It's a subtle and tragic reminder of what's to come. Even though we all know how this story ends, the novel is still a captivating read. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a page-turner—sometimes Fowler gets bogged down in the historical minutiae—but it is original, imaginative, and ingeniously plotted. Because we...
Maureen RogersCat
The Booth family has been one of my history rabbit holes for awhile. Karen Joy Fowler’s rich characterizations of this tormented, talented, loving, and totally Shakespearean family bring some intriguing perspectives - the creative freedom of fiction grounded in careful research. The story is told from the viewpoints of three of the siblings. I loved older sister Rosalie’s insightful observations - including the ghosts of the four dead children and her surrogate motherhood to the youngest four. Since history tells us little about her, Fowler richly creates a haunted but wise woman with a wry wit. The other sibling perspectives are Asia and Edwin (John Wilkes is very intentionally not a storyteller, but his presence is prominent). Fowler artfully captures complex Edwin, the quiet, ultra-sensitive child who eventually becomes one of the greatest cultural figures of the era. I also enjoyed sister Asia’s fiery perspective, and how two of the three storytellers are women, interptreting a family and time that focused on the men. The historic interludes between chapters that feature Lincoln and other leaders are poignant, tying the story to our own time. This book is a slower read, a psychological character study to be savored.
Short Excerpt Teaser
1822
The people who live there call it the farm, though it's half trees, woodland merging into dense forest. A two-story, two-room log cabin has been brought from a nearby acreage on rollers greased with pig lard. The walls are whitewashed, the shutters painted red. A kitchen is added on one side, a bedroom and loft on the other. The additions stand off the main room like wings. There is nothing special about this cabin with its low ceilings, meager windows, and canted staircase, and moving it was a costly business, every local ox and man hired for the job. This all left the neighbors with the impression that the new owner was a bit crazy, a thought they never had cause to revise.
The relocation puts the cabin beside Beech Spring, where the water is so clean and clear as to be invisible. But, and the neighbors suspect that this is the real purpose, it's also a secret cabin now, screened from the wind and the road by a dense stand of walnut, oak, tulip, and beech. Still, since everyone in the neighborhood helped move it, everyone in the neighborhood knows it's there.
The nearest neighbors are the Woolseys on one side and the Rogerses on the other. Bel Air, the county seat, is three miles away; the big city of Baltimore some thirty miles of rough coach road to the south and west.
Improvements are made. Orchards of peach, apple, and pear are planted; fields of corn, cane sorghum, barley, and oats; a kitchen garden of radishes, beets, and onions. A cherry tree sprig is set near the front door and carefully tended. A granary, stables, barn, and milking shed are built. Three large, black Newfoundland dogs arrive to patrol the grounds. They are chained during the day and loosed at night. The neighbors describe these dogs as savage.
Zigzag fences are erected or repaired. The mail is delivered on horseback once a week, thrown over the gate by a postboy, who whistles through two fingers as he passes, driving the dogs to a frenzy of howling and rattling chains.
A secret family moves into the secret cabin.
***
Sixteen years pass. The family grows, shrinks, grows. By 1838, the children number at nine, counting the one about to arrive and the four who are dead. Eventually there will be ten.
These children have:
A famous father, a Shakespearean actor, on tour more often than at home.
A paternal grandfather, skinny as a stork, with white hair worn in a single braid, his clothing also fifty years out of fashion, breech trousers and buckle shoes. He's come from London to help out during their father's long absences. He was once a lawyer, treasonably sympathetic to the American revolutionaries, enthusiastic for all things American. Visitors to his London house were made to bow before a portrait of George Washington. Now that he lives here, he hates it. He likens the farm to Robinson Crusoe's island, himself a marooned castaway on its desolate shore. He's rarely sober, which makes him less helpful than might have been hoped.
An indulgent mother. A dark-haired beauty with retiring manners, she'd once sold flowers from her family nursery on Drury Lane. She'd first seen their father onstage as King Lear and was astonished, when meeting him, to find that he was young and handsome. He'd had to perform the Howl, howl, howl speech right there in the London street before she'd believe he was the same man. "When will you spend a day with me?" he'd asked within minutes of learning her name. "Tomorrow?" and she'd surprised herself by saying yes.
During their brief courtship, he'd sent her ninety-three love letters, pressing his suit with his ambition, his ardor, the poems of Lord Byron, and the promise of adventure. Soon enough, she'd agreed to run away with him to the island of Madeira, and from there to America.
Perhaps adventure was more implied than promised outright. After they'd left their families in England, after they'd had their first child, after they'd arrived in Maryland and leased the farm on a thousand-year lease, after he'd arranged to move the cabin onto it, only then did he explain that he'd be touring without her nine months of every year. For nine months of every year, she'd be left here with his drunken father.
What else could he do? he asked, leaving no pause in which she might answer; he was a master of timing. He needed to tour if they planned to eat. And clearly, she and the baby couldn't come along. There is nothing worse than an unhappy, complaining shrew for a wife, he'd finished, by way of warning. He didn't plan on having one of those.
So here she's been, on the farm, for sixteen years now. For seventeen years, almost without break, she's been either expecting a...
The people who live there call it the farm, though it's half trees, woodland merging into dense forest. A two-story, two-room log cabin has been brought from a nearby acreage on rollers greased with pig lard. The walls are whitewashed, the shutters painted red. A kitchen is added on one side, a bedroom and loft on the other. The additions stand off the main room like wings. There is nothing special about this cabin with its low ceilings, meager windows, and canted staircase, and moving it was a costly business, every local ox and man hired for the job. This all left the neighbors with the impression that the new owner was a bit crazy, a thought they never had cause to revise.
The relocation puts the cabin beside Beech Spring, where the water is so clean and clear as to be invisible. But, and the neighbors suspect that this is the real purpose, it's also a secret cabin now, screened from the wind and the road by a dense stand of walnut, oak, tulip, and beech. Still, since everyone in the neighborhood helped move it, everyone in the neighborhood knows it's there.
The nearest neighbors are the Woolseys on one side and the Rogerses on the other. Bel Air, the county seat, is three miles away; the big city of Baltimore some thirty miles of rough coach road to the south and west.
Improvements are made. Orchards of peach, apple, and pear are planted; fields of corn, cane sorghum, barley, and oats; a kitchen garden of radishes, beets, and onions. A cherry tree sprig is set near the front door and carefully tended. A granary, stables, barn, and milking shed are built. Three large, black Newfoundland dogs arrive to patrol the grounds. They are chained during the day and loosed at night. The neighbors describe these dogs as savage.
Zigzag fences are erected or repaired. The mail is delivered on horseback once a week, thrown over the gate by a postboy, who whistles through two fingers as he passes, driving the dogs to a frenzy of howling and rattling chains.
A secret family moves into the secret cabin.
***
Sixteen years pass. The family grows, shrinks, grows. By 1838, the children number at nine, counting the one about to arrive and the four who are dead. Eventually there will be ten.
These children have:
A famous father, a Shakespearean actor, on tour more often than at home.
A paternal grandfather, skinny as a stork, with white hair worn in a single braid, his clothing also fifty years out of fashion, breech trousers and buckle shoes. He's come from London to help out during their father's long absences. He was once a lawyer, treasonably sympathetic to the American revolutionaries, enthusiastic for all things American. Visitors to his London house were made to bow before a portrait of George Washington. Now that he lives here, he hates it. He likens the farm to Robinson Crusoe's island, himself a marooned castaway on its desolate shore. He's rarely sober, which makes him less helpful than might have been hoped.
An indulgent mother. A dark-haired beauty with retiring manners, she'd once sold flowers from her family nursery on Drury Lane. She'd first seen their father onstage as King Lear and was astonished, when meeting him, to find that he was young and handsome. He'd had to perform the Howl, howl, howl speech right there in the London street before she'd believe he was the same man. "When will you spend a day with me?" he'd asked within minutes of learning her name. "Tomorrow?" and she'd surprised herself by saying yes.
During their brief courtship, he'd sent her ninety-three love letters, pressing his suit with his ambition, his ardor, the poems of Lord Byron, and the promise of adventure. Soon enough, she'd agreed to run away with him to the island of Madeira, and from there to America.
Perhaps adventure was more implied than promised outright. After they'd left their families in England, after they'd had their first child, after they'd arrived in Maryland and leased the farm on a thousand-year lease, after he'd arranged to move the cabin onto it, only then did he explain that he'd be touring without her nine months of every year. For nine months of every year, she'd be left here with his drunken father.
What else could he do? he asked, leaving no pause in which she might answer; he was a master of timing. He needed to tour if they planned to eat. And clearly, she and the baby couldn't come along. There is nothing worse than an unhappy, complaining shrew for a wife, he'd finished, by way of warning. He didn't plan on having one of those.
So here she's been, on the farm, for sixteen years now. For seventeen years, almost without break, she's been either expecting a...
