Soul Catcher: A Novel [Paperback]

Augustus Cain is a damaged man haunted by a terrible skill: the ability to track people who don't want to be found. Rosetta is a runaway slave who bears the scars, inside and out, of a life of servitude to a cruel and unforgiving master. Her flight is fueled by a passion and determination only a mother could feel, and she would rather die than let anyone drag her back to hell. In a dark, volatile time prior to the Civil War, fate has bound the hunted and hunter on a remarkable odyssey from Virginia to Boston and back again—an extraordinary test of character and will, mercy and compassion, that will change them both forever.

Augustus Cain is a damaged man haunted by a terrible skill: the ability to track people who don't want to be found. Rosetta is a runaway slave who bears the scars, inside and out, of a life of servitude to a cruel and unforgiving master. Her flight is fueled by a passion and determination only a mother could feel, and she would rather die than let anyone drag her back to hell. In a dark, volatile time prior to the Civil War, fate has bound the hunted and hunter on a remarkable odyssey from Virginia to Boston and back again—an extraordinary test of character and will, mercy and compassion, that will change them both forever.

A good, old-fashioned page turner . . . The novel is also a thoughtful exploration of a nation living with a brutal institution that contradicts its highest ideals. -Boston Globe Book Review

As richly detailed and beautifully written as the best Civil War-era novels. But while Soul Catcher reads like an adventure story, it has its own impressive weight. Slavery and its effects are clearly and effectively portrayed as the worm in the American apple. -Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool