A sweeping, epic biography about a man and his times, Hernando de Soto begins shortly after Columbus's first voyage to the Americas. Born around 1500, Soto left home at fourteen for Central America, where he rose through the ranks of the conquistadors to become a feared and effective captain, slave trader, and political operative. In 1531, he joined forces with Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of the Incas, leading the vanguard to Cuzco as Pizarro's...

When Arden Arrowood was four years old, her two-year-old twin sisters were stolen from the front yard of their hometown of Keokuk, Iowa, on the Mississippi River while Arden watched. Twenty years later, she returns home to confront the darkest part of her past. As the mystery unravels, the novel explores the reliability of memory, the stories we tell ourselves, and the power of love.

"Biologist Rob Dun grew up listening to stories of the Mississippi River, how it flooded his grandfather's town of Greenville, swallowing up the townsfolk and leaving behind a muddy wasteland. Years later, Dunn discovered the cause of the great deluge. The Army Corps of Engineers had tried to straighten the river, cutting off its meandering oxbows in order to allow for the easy passage of boats. They had tried to bend nature to their own design. But...

"In the years prior to World War II, while much of America remained racially segregated, Lincoln Hills Country Club was a renowned vacation spot for African-Americans in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Opened in 1922 by and for African-Americans, it spanned some 100 acres of land in a serene and scenic environment, providing its guests with a rarely afforded sense of freedom, a shelter from the storm. Lincoln Hills' status as the only African-American...

A new novel inspired by little-known historical events: a dramatic story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its vital connection to her own students' lives. Actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold...