Undisturbed Peace

Hailed as “the finest depiction of the infamous Trail of Tears,” this unflinching novel sheds light on a tragic history (Pat Conroy). As the tribes of the South make the grueling journey across the Mississippi River, a trio of disparate characters is united by a “far-reaching story of love, courage, and honor” (Booklist). Greensborough, North Carolina, 1828. Abrahan Bento Sassaporta Naggar has traveled to America from the filthy streets of East London in search of a better life. But Abe’s visions of a privileged apprenticeship in the Sassaporta Brothers’ empire are soon replaced with the grim reality of indentured servitude. Some fifty miles west, Dark Water of the Mountains, the daughter of a powerful Cherokee chief, leads a life of irreverent solitude. Twenty years ago, she renounced her family’s plans for her to marry a wealthy white man—a decision that soon proves fateful. And in Georgia, a black slave named Jacob has resigned himself to a life of loss and injustice in a Cherokee city of refuge for criminals. From the author of Marching to Zion and One More River comes a sweeping novel of American history. As their stories converge in the shameful machinations of history, three outsiders will bear witness to the horrors known as Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act—just as they also discover the possibility for hope. See why Library Journal raves, “This absorbing and vivid portrait of 19th-century America will attract serious historical fiction fans.”  

“Mary Glickman’s powerful new novel is the finest depiction of the infamous Trail of Tears that I’ve ever read. The forced removal of the Cherokee nation from its ancestral homeland in the southern Appalachia and its forced relocation in Oklahoma is one of the darkest and most fascinating dramas of a shameful American past. Glickman turns this to literature by her brilliant portrayal of three unforgettable characters. Their story is riveting, and Mary Glickman is a wonder.” —Pat Conroy, author of The Death of Santini   “An astonishing eye-opener, a brand new story of a people and a past, the history of which Glickman shows us we took for granted. In Glickman’s work, we truly inhabit a New World, and it is one, though long lost and vanished, we inhabit in the world of today, a world of many tears, many trails.” —Bernie Schein, author of Famous All Over Town   “A sympathetic, well-executed historical novel . . . In this tale of three ordinary, eminently relatable people, the author adeptly sets Abe’s story against the backdrop of Andrew Jackson’s shameful, greedy relocation of the Cherokees and the land grab of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. . . .  Glickman does an outstanding job of weaving together the narratives of her three disparate characters.” —Publishers Weekly   “Glickman gives readers much to ponder on the many ways prejudice can be expressed. Her beautiful descriptions of an unsettled America and its native people are highlights in this far-reaching story of love, courage, and honor.” —Booklist “With highly researched and descriptive writing, Glickman weaves a tale that includes the horrors of the forced relocation of Native Americans, an event now known as the Trail of Tears. . . . This absorbing and vivid portrait of 19th-century America will attract serious historical fiction fans.” —Library Journal “Mary Glickman’s vivid new novel . . . depicts the Cherokee exile in its starkest, brutal reality. . . . Well researched and highly recommended, An Undisturbed Peace is a superb work of historical fiction.” —The Jewish Book Council “An Undisturbed Peace is an exceptionally written read from beginning to end and clearly documents author Mary Glickman as a novelist of consummate literary skills. Very highly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review

Born on the South Shore of Boston, Massachusetts, Mary Glickman studied at the Université de Lyon and Boston University. While she was raised in a strict Irish-Polish Catholic family, from an early age Glickman felt an affinity toward Judaism and converted to the faith in her late twenties. She now lives in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, with her husband, Stephen. Glickman is the author of Home in the Morning; One More River, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Fiction; and Marching to Zion. An Undisturbed Peace is her fourth novel.