Monarchs Under the Sassafras Tree

Indian Summer, 1929. O.T. Lawrence is about as content as a cotton farmer can be in Five Forks, Georgia – nothing, not poverty, drought, or even the boll weevil can spoil the idyllic family life he shares with his doting wife and children, and his beloved twin brother Walt. Until illness and Black Tuesday take everything O.T. ever held dear from him in one fell swoop. Grieving, drinking, and careening towards homelessness, O.T. is in the pits of despair when he receives an odd letter. The mysterious Sivvy Hargrove, whom he briefly knew as a teenager, is locked away in Milledgeville Asylum for the insane. O.T. travels through the Appalachian foothills of Rock Creek, through desperate antebellum towns, and on down to Milledgeville to find out what really happened to young Sivvy Hargrove. His journey brings him face to face with the sad, strange girl who once haunted his dreams. He finds that she’s haunted by her own ghosts – those of a past even more painful than his own. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Monarchs Under the Sassafras Tree is a love story to Georgia and the spirit of its people - a story of family, unconditional love, poverty, injustice and finding the strength inside to keep on going when all is lost.