The Nature of Remains

by Ginger Eager

In Flyshoals, Georgia, karma is writ small enough to witness. When Doreen Swilley discovers that her boss and lover of thirty years intends to fire her to placate his dying wife, she devises a plan to steal his business from him. Her plan just might work too, if she is not thwarted by a small town’s enmeshed histories and her family’s own dark secrets.

Set during the 2009 recession, The Nature of Remains rests at the intersection of class, gender, education and place. Through extended geological metaphor, readers witness the orogeny, crystallization, and weathering of the human soul. Doreen’s journey reveals the ways even a woman’s most precious connections—her children, her grandchildren, her lover—operate within larger social structures capable of challenging her sovereignty.

478 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2020

About the author

Ginger Eager's first novel, The Nature of Remains, won the AWP Award for the Novel. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in West Branch, Necessary Fiction, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Ginger Eager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for reading!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, moving novel that challenges the reader but also carries them along. It flows deftly between different characters’ points of view, giving deep inner lives to a complicated group of individuals. The writing is excellent, with many musical sentences that never feel overwrought, making it an ongoing pleasure to read. The plot and familial relationships could sometimes be difficult to parse, slipping through time and people, but this was not a problem; rather, it required close reading, and it required time to understand how so many stories interlocked in so many ways.

This novel is, at least in part, about the kind of long-term relationships women have with abusive men, how that abuse can cross generations, how those men can convince themselves they are good and right, and the complicated love and fear women feel for them. But it’s reductive to call it a novel about abuse. It’s also a novel about scraping by in an economy that forgets small towns and ignores the working class, it’s a novel about generational grudges, it's a novel about a society evolving too slowly, it’s a novel about the ins and outs of the life insurance business.

Also, I think this is great addition to the Southern Gothic canon. It's not really fantastical (though there is a rumbling of magic in the gemstones that are just sitting beneath the surface of this region's land--an extended metaphor I haven't fully unpacked), but it's got the deeply flawed characters, the generational land, the derelict and decaying homes, the hidden bodies, the violence waiting to explode onto the page, and the inevitable, terrifying reckoning. Flannery O'Connor would be proud.

It took me a long time to read it, partially because it's a novel that demands your patience, but also because I read it during this global pandemic and my brain found it difficult to concentrate on any one thing for long. But global pandemics really do make me thankful for beautiful literature. I'm so glad I came upon this book!

[Erskine Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I have waited to read with breathless anticipation. I won a copy at a literary event a few months ago and it in March. The Nature of Remains is well worth the wait. The Nature of Remains binds you to the edge of your seat as tension between Johnathon, Lexie, and Doreen builds to a wrenching climax. Ginger Eager constructs a narrative lyrical in its wording and thought provoking throughout its unfolding.

I love the characters. They walked right out of the south I grew up in. The intersecting social classes, the pride in who you are, and the strength a tough existence has developed in generations of southerners made me feel right at home with them. I'll paraphrase one line that made me laugh out loud to emphasize my point- he was the first member of the family to live in a trailer, she wouldn't be the second. Made me feel right at home. Lexie, Doreen, Johnny Swilley, and Bird are not to be missed.

Mrs. Eager uses a knowledge of geology to set up and drive the plot throughout the book. A discussion on the soul in one chapter is priceless. The author uses the building blocks of our existence to ruminate on the body's function as the sanctuary for the soul. This rumination comes back to haunt the reader later in the book.

Please read this. It is a powerful novel by a writer who needs to be read. I rated it five stars. I would give it more stars if I could.

[Mitzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book that no one has heard about! This was the August selection for our local ZTA Alumni Book Club.

Winner of the AWP Award for the Novel
Books All Georgians Should Read, 2021
Georgia Author of the Year Award, 2021

Eager’s beautifully constructed layers illustrate the consequences of life’s choices. The characters are flawed and memorable. Sensitive subject matter is carefully handled. If you enjoy southern, gothic, or literary fiction, this is the book for you! I only wish the publisher had designed a better book cover. I highly recommend!

[Katie Teal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ginger managed to capture the complicated essence of family and secrets in small southern towns and put it on paper. I could imagine meeting these characters in the southern towns where I grew up and hear the way people are whispered about and secrets aren't really kept, but spoken about through euphemism and doublespeak.

[Avery Leopard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible breakout novel from Central Georgia that deserves a hardcover release. Ginger Eager draws in the reader with a domestic blackmail, and expertly weaves a tale of multiple lives, wringing and twisting her well-developed characters towards a sharp, amethyst-laden fate.

[Deanna Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the mystery and the character development of this novel. I loved that the women in this novel were flawed, yet they recognized their flaws, didn't gloss over them, and continued to make strong decisions.

[Jody Forrester · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Nature of Remains by Ginger Eager might well be the best book I've read this year. It is beautifully written with sentences that soar—my favorite kind. On the surface the characters that people this book appear ordinary - an insurance broker, a church-going mother and her friend, a young woman striving to change her place in the world, and her husband who wants her to stay the same. But nobody is actually what they appear to be. They all have secrets that move the plot along in surprising and unexpected ways. Best of all is the author's respect to place. The book is staged in a fictional small town in Georgia, and the place itself has secrets both unexpected and thrilling.

[Ann Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read - especially for a debut novel.

The characters are well developed - they were all likeable and unlikeable at the same time.
They all had strong traits and weak traits - don't we all.

If I say anymore I will say too much!

Please read it!

[Aaron Hillegass · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really, really good novel. It has realistic, flawed yet relatable characters doing their best with what the hand they were dealt. The prose is gorgeous. There are great explorations of family, motherhood, masculinity, and regret.

I can't say enough good things about it. You should read it.

[Carolyn Breckinridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever you want to see how family patterns repeat themselves generation to generation, author Ginger Eager has provided a realistic window in her beautifully-written debut novel, ‘The Nature of Remains.’ Set in small-town Georgia a little more than a decade ago, this story depicts love as humans often experience it, fraught with complications, miscommunications, longings, regrets and strivings to make things better. There are numerous characters in this book’s small town, most of whom have secrets, some devastating. Their relationships also are tangled and complex. Domestic violence takes a front seat throughout this novel, which skillfully moves forward and backward in time, and also, shifts from one character’s perspective to another. This is a heart-wrenching but honest story made up of fictional but real people who are living out fictional but real lives. The author has set aside a portion of the proceeds from this novel’s sale to go to a shelter for domestic abuse.

[Veena Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal debut novel! Ginger Eager dives deep into the complex lives of the people who call the small fictional town of Flyshoals, Georgia home. Told through multiple timelines and points of view, The Nature of Remains explores the shifting relationships between its diverse characters, and the effects of a major economic downturn on their lives. Eager's strength is her beautiful, nuanced writing and her capacity to probe human nature. Her characters are all different shades of gray, yet they will stay with you long after you finish the last page. Eager's biggest triumph, however, is in melding the geography of the region with the lives of her characters. And it isn't only shining amethysts that some of the characters of the book dig up, but also deeply buried secrets. A must read!

[Lupin Campos · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Nature of Remains” is a beautifully crafted novel that takes you on a journey through intertwining stories, times, and lives. With grace and sensitivity, it handles complex topics, delving into the nuances often overlooked in fiction. It embraces the many shades of gray that make life so rich and complex.
Dear reader, treat yourself to this thoughtful and compelling book—you won’t regret it!

[Janet Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep, twisting plot reveals the intricately woven lives of these sad, stereotypical, small town Georgia characters. The inclusion of digging for amethysts, hints of mysticism, buried secrets, and the depths of love between mothers and children and men and women make for an intensity found in few novels. Not your run-of-the-mill southern drama. This novel will pull you in, deeply.

[Cynthia Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this big, thick book from the first page. Oh my goodness, Doreen, almost sixty and a force of nature. She goes busting in expecting to take charge... And Lexie, just as strong as Doreen. This is a novel about family and marriage and women and rocks--told in beautiful, solid sentences. I just loved it.

[Kelley Cody-Grimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary narrative set in a small Georgia town with secrets and skeletons aplenty. The female characters are flawed and true to life and the men have their own issues. The pacing moves along well and the writing is tight. A great read anytime of year!

[Mary Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Such good characters, loveable and flawed, who struggle and win against all sorts of odds. The fascinating element of Georgia geology, the abandoned house full of squatters, the pride and honor the main character carries with her through the entire story. Highly recommend. A book to savor and read again.