Over the Plain Houses
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks is a reprint edition published by Hub City Press on September 19, 2017. This 280-page novel is set in 1939 and follows USDA agent Virginia Furman as she ventures into the North Carolina mountains to help families modernize their homes and farms. The narrative centers on farm wife Irenie Lambey, who finds herself drawn to Virginia’s confidence while grappling with her own troubled marriage to Brodis, a fundamentalist preacher. As Irenie’s restlessness grows, she begins to explore the woods at night, leading to tensions that escalate into a clash of beliefs and fears.
Readers will discover a story that intertwines themes of family life and the struggle for personal freedom against a backdrop of historical change. The novel delves into Irenie’s quest for escape and self-discovery, juxtaposed with Brodis’s increasing paranoia and adherence to traditional values. As the plot unfolds, the tension between modernity and the past becomes palpable, culminating in a dramatic confrontation that impacts the entire community. This edition invites readers to explore the complexities of rural life and the haunting myths that accompany the pursuit of change.
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“A spellbinding story of witchcraft and disobedience.” – NPR
An NPR 2016 Best Book
Winner of the Thomas Wolfe Award
Winner of the Southern Book Prize
Winner of Georgia Author of the Year in Literary Fiction
Winner of 2017 IPPY Gold in Literary Fiction
Winner of the 2018 Townsend Prize for Best Georgia Fiction
A 2016 Indie Next pick
A Chicago Review of Books Best Fiction of 2016
An Atlanta Journal Constitution Best Southern Books of 2016
A Bustle Great Appalachian Novel
It’s 1939, and the federal government has sent USDA agent Virginia Furman into the North Carolina mountains to instruct families on modernizing their homes and farms. There she meets farm wife Irenie Lambey, who is immediately drawn to the lady agent’s self-possession. Already, cracks are emerging in Irenie’s fragile marriage to Brodis, an ex-logger turned fundamentalist preacher: She has taken to night ramblings through the woods to escape her husband’s bed, storing strange keepsakes in a mountain cavern. To Brodis, these are all the signs that Irenie–tiptoeing through the dark in her billowing white nightshirt–is practicing black magic.
When Irenie slips back into bed with a kind of supernatural stealth, Brodis senses that a certain evil has entered his life, linked to the lady agent, or perhaps to other, more sinister forces.
Working in the stylistic terrain of Amy Greene and Bonnie Jo Campbell, this award-winning debut by Julia Franks is the story of a woman intrigued by the possibility of change, escape, and reproductive choice–stalked by a Bible-haunted man who fears his government and stakes his integrity upon an older way of life. As Brodis chases his demons, he brings about a final act of violence that shakes the entire valley. In this spellbinding Southern story, Franks bares the myths and mysteries that modernity can’t quite dispel.
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