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The City of Churches NewSouth Books In an unnamed Southern city in the hot summer of 1963, four girls die in a church bombing, a white merchant who impulsively takes down the Jim Crow signs in his store is harassed by segregationists, every day brings new protests and counterattacks, and a black handyman and a white cop are killed when a stick of dynamite inexplicably explodes between them. Thirty years later, the sons of these two men return to the city of their birth, one a minister, the other a writer, each seeking clues to the fathers who were literally blown from their young lives. Their journeys, and that of their fathers before them, are told in chapters that alternate between 1963, when the truth seemed obvious but unattainable, and 1993, when the barriers are down but the facts are elusive and often surprising. The novel telling these interwoven stories is a satisfying, compelling examination of race and human relations, the terrible cost of the sins of the past, and the promise of racial healing.
Reviews “Robbins deftly fictionalizes the fight for racial equality, dramatizing courageous demonstrations and vicious retaliations, and setting in motion a compelling cast of diverse characters who embody every fear, doubt, and conviction aroused by these momentous changes. In his plainly told yet empathic and suspenseful tale, Robbins makes this epic historic moment human again—personal, confounding, terrifying, and necessary—and reminds us all that we’ve overcome and all that we must yet achieve.” “There are times when powerful fiction can bring to life the tragic, troubled past in ways that factual histories cannot. Kenneth Robbins has written just that sort of novel. His compelling story reminds us that never should we forget the brutality that rocked our region and bathed it in the blood of innocents four decades ago. In helping us remember, he helps us hope that, in the words of the anthem, we shall overcome—some day.” “Robbins does not settle for easy endings or pat solutions: the demon of racism is shown to be just as alive and active now as ever. One repeated motif in the novel is that while many things change, others do not. The deeply rooted potential for violence is everywhere in the novel, but never portrayed as chillingly as in a scene in which a white man gets a black man in his crosshairs, casually snaps the hammer on an empty chamber and laughs. In the light of such ingrained bigotry, Robbins offers the prayer of Roosevelt Mears’s son Rider, in 1993 a minister in his hometown church: ‘Save each and every sinner you see from the chosen path of evil.’ ” “The City Of Churches by Kenneth Robbins is a fictionalized retelling of the 1963 Birmingham church bombings that arose out of the movement to end segregation in Alabama and throughout the American South. It was a time of police attack dogs and water hoses, protest marches, public accommodation sit-ins, and an increasing awareness of the injustices of Jim Crow laws discriminating against African-American citizens. Two men (a black handyman and a white police officer) were killed by the same stick of dynamite in 1963, and in 1993 their sons have returned south to discover the truth behind the deaths of their fathers. The intertwining of the modern setting and the racial tensions of the 1960s are deftly interwoven into a story that is compelling, moving, and illuminating. The City Of Churches is strongly recommended for personal reading lists and community library collections.”
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