The past and the present converge in this enthralling, serpentine tale of women connected by motherhood, slavery’s legacy, and histories that span centuries.
In 1850 in Massachusetts, Whittaker House stood as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It’s where two freedom seekers, Little Annie and Clementine, hid and perished. Whittaker House still stands, and Little Annie and Clementine still linger, their dreams of freedom unfulfilled.
Now a fashionably distressed vacation rental in the Berkshires, Whittaker House draws seekers of another kind: Black women who only appear to be free. Among them are Dominique, a single mother following her grand-mère’s stories to Whittaker House in search of an ancestor; Michelle, Dominique’s lover, who has journeyed to the Berkshire Mountains to heal her own traumas; and Kaye, Michelle’s sister, a seer whose visions reveal the past and future secrets of the former safehouse—along with her own.
For each of them, true liberation can come only from uncovering their connection to history—and to the spirits awaiting peace and redemption within the walls of Whittaker House.
Genre: Horror
In 1850 in Massachusetts, Whittaker House stood as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It’s where two freedom seekers, Little Annie and Clementine, hid and perished. Whittaker House still stands, and Little Annie and Clementine still linger, their dreams of freedom unfulfilled.
Now a fashionably distressed vacation rental in the Berkshires, Whittaker House draws seekers of another kind: Black women who only appear to be free. Among them are Dominique, a single mother following her grand-mère’s stories to Whittaker House in search of an ancestor; Michelle, Dominique’s lover, who has journeyed to the Berkshire Mountains to heal her own traumas; and Kaye, Michelle’s sister, a seer whose visions reveal the past and future secrets of the former safehouse—along with her own.
For each of them, true liberation can come only from uncovering their connection to history—and to the spirits awaiting peace and redemption within the walls of Whittaker House.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"Centering on a Berkshires home that was part of the Underground Railroad, Embers on the Wind bends time to bring together a kaleidoscope of Black and white lives that seek, shatter, and rise in a stunning conclusion. Lisa Williamson Rosenberg has written a powerful, haunting tale of the modern African American diaspora." - Laurie Lico Albanese
"Ambitious and enthralling, Embers on the Wind is a richly told story of women bound by generations past and by spirits struggling to uncover truths and gain some semblance of freedom. Gripping and harrowing, start to finish." - Susan Bernhard
"A vital stop along the Underground Railroad, the historic Whittaker House should be a symbol of freedom and hope. Instead, it cries and whispers into the modern era, telling stories of all that was risked and lost by those who sought refuge there. Throughout this spellbinding, heartbreaking novel, Lisa Williamson Rosenberg weaves a tapestry from the lives that are bound to one another through a singular event. As this shared history comes into focus, readers come to understand the poignant and devastating impact of one word: almost." - Bobi Conn
"Lisa Williamson Rosenberg captures both the conflagration of slavery and its ignited sprawl through time in this stirring novel of linked stories surrounding Whittaker House - a location imbued with Morrison's 'site of memory' connecting people by time, circumstance, and of course, place. Whittaker House is as impressively rendered on the page as it is in our collective literary imagination of places with long memories and the people who comprise and/or curate the histories and stories of them. Embers on the Wind speaks of our connections - temporal, relative, corporeal, and spiritual - in ways that reckon with an ever-present past." - M Shelly Conner
"A gorgeously layered novel, cinematic in scope and yet hauntingly intimate. Embers on the Wind crosses the barriers between the living and the dead, illuminating how intergenerational trauma reverberates through history. An incandescent debut, luminous and mesmerizing." - Marco Rafalà
"Ambitious and enthralling, Embers on the Wind is a richly told story of women bound by generations past and by spirits struggling to uncover truths and gain some semblance of freedom. Gripping and harrowing, start to finish." - Susan Bernhard
"A vital stop along the Underground Railroad, the historic Whittaker House should be a symbol of freedom and hope. Instead, it cries and whispers into the modern era, telling stories of all that was risked and lost by those who sought refuge there. Throughout this spellbinding, heartbreaking novel, Lisa Williamson Rosenberg weaves a tapestry from the lives that are bound to one another through a singular event. As this shared history comes into focus, readers come to understand the poignant and devastating impact of one word: almost." - Bobi Conn
"Lisa Williamson Rosenberg captures both the conflagration of slavery and its ignited sprawl through time in this stirring novel of linked stories surrounding Whittaker House - a location imbued with Morrison's 'site of memory' connecting people by time, circumstance, and of course, place. Whittaker House is as impressively rendered on the page as it is in our collective literary imagination of places with long memories and the people who comprise and/or curate the histories and stories of them. Embers on the Wind speaks of our connections - temporal, relative, corporeal, and spiritual - in ways that reckon with an ever-present past." - M Shelly Conner
"A gorgeously layered novel, cinematic in scope and yet hauntingly intimate. Embers on the Wind crosses the barriers between the living and the dead, illuminating how intergenerational trauma reverberates through history. An incandescent debut, luminous and mesmerizing." - Marco Rafalà
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Lisa Williamson Rosenberg's Embers on the Wind