Fugitives of the Heart by William Gay

Fugitives of the Heart by William Gay

William Gay's posthumous novel, with a foreword by Sonny Brewer and an afterword by J.M. White.

In his posthumous novel, William Gay has offered admirable homage to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Marion Yates, a teenage orphan, is taken in by an ex-schoolteacher named Black Crowe. The boy in turn cares for Crowe when he is temporarily disabled by a dynamite blast. Every hardscrabble thing we have come to expect from Gay lies in this novel, including an offbeat and dark humor.

“…With themes of love and friendship, along with adversity, corruption, and poverty, Fugitives of the Heart also shares a sense of reverence for this one chance we are given to appreciate and embrace this adventure we call life.” Five Star Reader Review

“…Similar to Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the episodic plot is held together with the main storyline concerning the relationship between the boy, Yates, and a free-spirited black man on the run named Crowe. However, while Twain certainly haunts this novel, Fugitives is not a retelling of a classic. The dark mood, the themes, the lyricism is classic William Gay storytelling.” Five Star Reader Review