Sweeping Historical Fiction Tells a New Old-West Tale

Goodreads: Amity is an interesting word when you think about the time and plot and themes of this book. It’s not a word that you hear frequently—did you choose it because, in a way, it calls attention to itself?

Nathan Harris: Behind the title of the book is the search for peace and prosperity and freedom, and however difficult that is to locate in a more general sense. I came across the idea for the book just researching The Sweetness of Water, my first novel. And I think for a lot of writers with historical fiction, you can find just the smallest tidbit from history that will blossom into a lot more. 

I came across this fact that there were Confederate loyalists who, after the Civil War, wanted to re-create the lives they had during the times of enslavement, when they had slaves, and they decided to move to Mexico and try to re-create this agricultural existence and bring along their former slaves, and forced them back into bondage, some of them. 

At the time, I just sat with it. It has no place in The Sweetness of Water. But it stuck with me. And then as time went on, I decided there was more to it. And that led to this idea of June and the novel, who is forced to Mexico on this trip with Mr. Harper, and then Coleman is left behind, and this greater journey of them trying to find one another.

GR: When this story takes place, it's after the Civil War. You've got these two characters who were enslaved, who are now technically free. So they’re emancipated from slavery but still searching for freedom.

NH: As an author, it's been interesting to explore that space and what that must have been like psychologically. It's, again, such a fascinating period in history. 

Both of them, on the surface, understand that they're free and experience it. For Coleman, he's stuck in in New Orleans, and he is free to leave whenever he wishes. At that point, he's something of a servant to the Harper family. 

But at the same time, he's waiting to hear news of what's happened to his sister, and he knows that the only way to find out is through Mr. Harper, who is now in Mexico with her. He's in this strange space of being free but not really being free. 

And really, what is freedom if he doesn't have that peace of mind knowing that his sister was OK and vice versa? For June, in a sense, she is free, but she's stuck under the thumb of Mr. Harper in Mexico, taken from the entire life that she's known, and she doesn't really know how to escape that situation. 

GR: How did you develop the plot of the book?

NH: Oh, man, it's just something that was processing for some time. That fact of the Confederate loyalists going to Mexico, and then I was learning about the Black Seminoles, who made the journey from Florida alongside the Seminole Indians during and after the Trail of Tears, and trying to find their own sense of freedom. They play a role in the story as well. All of these threads coming together, and binding themselves in my head, and what came out of it was Amity.
 
GR: This is your second book after The Sweetness of Water. What were the challenges or inspirations for writing this one after having such success with the first?

NH: Part of me wanted to write something, perhaps entirely different from The Sweetness of Water, maybe something that wasn't even historical fiction. I felt like this story was so unique. And where the first book was third person, this one only partially is. Coleman's voice was one that really drew me in—once I found it, I felt like I had to share it with readers. And the journey aspect of it—it almost feels like an adventure story, and that felt new to me. I was discovering there are all these refreshing, new, and compelling ways to write about this period that weren't mirroring The Sweetness of Water. I felt like if readers love the first book so much that they would be willing to go here with me to these new areas and these new forms of storytelling, and that was a journey they'd be willing to take as well.

GR: These stories do seem to run in parallel, though. They're both post–Civil War, semi-Reconstruction, regionalism. 

NH: It's such a turning point in history, for the country, and for slaves and the freed slaves. I've always gone back to that time, in terms of what I enjoy reading. Books like The Known World, or The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, or James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird. 

It's such a rich time to explore issues of race and ideas of freedom and class. 

In this book, in particular, what Mexico allowed, for me, is this opportunity with Coleman and Florence. Florence’s family owned Coleman. In Mexico, you see this equaling out of the classes, because there's nothing separating them. They're both stuck out there and forced to interact in this new way and discover each other's personalities in a way that was never allowed before. Having these peeks into the social interactions between the classes and the races I find fascinating to this day.

What I ran into with The Sweetness of Water is how limited, in some sense, interactions can be between Blacks and whites during that time. The Blacks are under so much pressure in their subjugated position. Someone like Coleman, in this novel, he's one of the most complex characters I've written or come across—he’s very smart, sort of afraid of the world, but he has a lot he wants to say. As he finds himself and the story progresses, you see more of that coming out. That was really empowering to see within him and empowering to write. That was something I didn't get to entirely explore in the first book.

GR: How did you start writing historical fiction?

NH: Stories I ever wrote were certainly contemporary works, but I found that writing historical fiction allowed me a way to write about a lot of issues that the world is struggling with right now, but at a distance. For readers and certainly myself, I'm able to more immerse myself in the story when it doesn't feel so immediate—when it's immediate, it can feel a little threatening at times. I felt more comfortable writing from the past. I followed that urge and that instinct, and I got a lot of support in doing so from my teachers, and I find myself here today.

GR: What themes were important to you when you were writing this book? It seems questions about hope, freedom, and opportunity are pretty central.

NH: I do think what freedom means is the biggest one in this novel. Every single character is struggling with that in some sense. From June, physically trying to be free from the clutches of Mr. Harper, to Coleman, trying to decide what true freedom looks like to him when he's free to move about day to day, but he does not truly feel free until he is gone from the Harper family. To Mr. Harper himself, who has decided to make this risky, insane move to Mexico, feeling like his world as a white man in the South has been compromised, and that he has lost his own sense of freedom. Every single character is dancing around that theme—it seems like the most prominent one here.

GR: How do you develop your characters? Do they come to you fully formed, or do they surprise you as you continue to write?

NH: They surprise me. I really do try to follow their lead. If you go into writing a scene, or into a moment that they're sharing with some sort of idea of how it's supposed to go, it just leads to a flat, flat interaction. I tried to go into every moment I'm writing with them together and just see where it leads me.
 
I always talk about the characters being in the room with me. When I'm first writing, they're maybe just an outline, pretty far back in the room. But as the novel progresses, you have these fully formed individuals. I can almost see them at my side. They grow along as the novel progresses and then, sadly, as the novel ends, they fade away. That's how it goes.

GR: How did Oliver come to be? I thought it was unexpected and fun to make a dog such a central character in the story. 

NH: I think we all love dogs.

GR: It definitely lets you know who the evil people are when they're mean to the dog.

NH: Beyond that, again, so much has been taken from Coleman in life, whether it be family or his sister, or his ability to be himself and to form bonds with others. Oliver was, for him, a chance to form a bond with someone or something that he knows will be returned to him. And he hopes won't be taken from him, and that he can feel safe in. For all the suppressed emotions and thoughts that he has that he doesn't feel free to share while in Louisiana or beyond, with Oliver, that is a safe space. That is his fake companion to put all that on.

GR: Coleman’s also got this relationship with the daughter of the family that formerly enslaved him, Florence. If relationships are a metaphorical journey, that is one that really changes from New Orleans to Texas.

NH: It's a complex one—even to this day, I am still mulling it. There are times with Florence, certainly at the beginning of the book, she's a very thorny character. There's lots to dislike about her, but there's also lots of ways to see why we should try to empathize with her. 

Every character, we need to try to see from every perspective. She's very pained by her relationship with her father and her mother. And I think Coleman knows this as well. 

As they continue their journey, there's parts of her that are laid bare to him and vice versa. She starts to see the world from his perspective as well, and what he's been through. Regardless of their preconceived notions of each other, this journey forces them to grow closer to one another and to bond. 

It's fascinating to see what their relationship evolves into. And like I said, to this day, it's something that I enjoy revisiting in my mind.

GR: And your villain—what’s his perspective? 

NH: Amos Turlow. When Amos first came to me, he had this one-track mind of making money and finishing this job, as one of many. He was kind of one-dimensional. As things progressed, I saw things from his own mind. He has this strange, I wouldn't say a bond with Coleman, but he recognized where Coleman's coming from. Turlow came from so little himself, and he's just trying to find his own sense of freedom with his brother and make enough money to make that freedom become realized. He doesn't quite understand why Coleman and Florence won't go along with his plan, and all of the deviant or devious decisions that he comes up with. He becomes more and more frustrated with that. But again, I see him not mature but grow more complex as the book goes on. He's pretty unforgettable in his own right. 

GR: How do you take your stories from idea to end?

NH: I think it is Leslie Epstein, and tell me if I'm wrong, that said you have 70 percent of an idea of where the novel is going, but there has to be 30 percent to have room to breathe, or it just feels too suffocating. 

As an author, I really do fall in line with that. I need to go into it having a sense of how the story will progress for the characters. But at the same time, you have to give them the space to go along and see where things lead. 

And sometimes, whether it be through creativity or taking that left turn when a right turn is supposed to happen, it leads to such interesting endpoints for the book. When you surprise yourself, you surprise the reader. Sometimes those are the best moments that a novel can bring and the most rewarding.

GR: Excellent. And then, how do you do your research? I read that for this one, you went to Texas?

NH: I try to stay curious. This period is interesting to me, so I always have some historical document or book on my shelves that I'm casually going through. Then as I get down into the nitty gritty of the writing process, I'll get whatever books that might apply—I have the big ones I used in the acknowledgements.
 
I went down to around Big Bend in Texas. I wanted to be on the ground for a little while. I got a few tours and met a few of the locals and learned how to ride a horse—I'd never done that—I felt like that was important. You know, lots of horse riding in my novel. I can see why people would do it for fun.

GR: I was also wondering about the cover illustration. It’s got such a turn-of-the century, prospecting feel to it. It's different from everything that you see on the market these days. 

NH: June Park did the cover, and the second I saw it I knew I wanted to use it. The wagon is so small, and the mountain range and the canyon are so vast. You see that glimmer of the sun, what could be over on the other side of the canyon, and it's both promising, but there's a foreboding sense to it as well. 

I think that ties into that idea of Amity, and what the title represents, and what Coleman and June have experienced of what might be with that sense of freedom but always worried about the flip side of it. I think it houses all of that within this beautiful illustration.

GR: Was that the most fun part of writing Amity, or what would you say you enjoyed the most?

NH: You have these moments where things come together—when it feels natural and the character accomplishes something that you almost, as the author, feel proud of them or happy for them. There's always two or three moments when I'm writing that genuinely make me cry. It can be a catastrophe; it can be a happy moment. Those are the moments that make it feel real for me. It tells me why I'm doing what I do. It makes an impact for myself, artistically. I hope that translates for readers, and it makes that emotional impact for them as well.

GR: That is such a lovely sentiment. And then, what are your favorite books? Authors? 

NH: Well, again, I love James McBride. I love Colson Whitehead, Toni Morrison, Daniel Kehlmann, who is a German author, Jason Mott, he's great. Elizabeth McCracken, Desmond Ward—that's a good list right there. 

I am reading The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer. I saw someone writing about it, I think in The New York Times. It is a story about a middle-aged woman who awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. 

I am only about 22 pages in, and the wall just appeared. But so far, so good. I love authors who take risks like this, like a strange new element that enters the world, and they are trying to play around with the psychological toll it takes on the characters. 

GR: And for you, any other books on the horizon?

NH: I'm always writing. I never know what it will be, but I'm sure there will be more novels from me at some point. If anyone enjoys The Sweetness of Water or Amity, just keep an eye out.