The Great Wherever

Did you realize? The dead are relentless gossips, or at least these dead are. We try to be reasonable, but do we judge? Like shit.

At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling through life. A semi-employed gig worker, she's still grieving her late father and coming to terms with being dumped by the man she had hoped to marry. Into this mess comes a call from a distant cousin about the land she has a vague memory of inheriting from her father – a sizable farm down in Lanyer County, Tennessee. Seeking distraction (and perhaps an opportunity to erase her mounting debts), Aubrey goes on a mission to get to know the land and the rich family history that lives there.

The Lambs have owned the farm for nearly a century, beginning with Aubrey’s great-grandfather Thomas, one of the first Black landowners in his community, who gave his four children a homestead on which they could flourish. But the family farm proves to be a burdened inheritance, with rivalries, legal issues and one tragic event leaving a trail of consequences for years to come.

An expansive family saga with a modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate. Under the watchful and gossipy eyes of the ghosts of Aubrey’s ancestors, it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our family, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.

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PRAISE FOR SHANNON SANDERS:

'A deftly woven tapestry that scruptuously depicts familial ties and estraangement' JONATHAN ESCOFFERY, Booker Prize shortlisted author of If I Survive You

'Brilliant . . . this delighted me' ANN NAPOLITANO, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

'Reading Shannon Sanders makes me want to visit home' TONY TULATHIMUTTE, author of Rejection

'Sanders extracts comedy from the formidable situations that erupt in people's lives' WASHINGTON POST