Edith: A Novel

Abstract

Edith is a novel of historical fiction set in Rome, Georgia as the US enters World War II. The novel begins just after Edith Didon has lost her mother to a prolonged illness. Soon after, Edith moves into the city to pursue a job in a textile mill in order to provide for her younger siblings, where she meets James, an older, married man. The novel follows the arc of their relationship—an unintended pregnancy, an escape to Florida, and the relationship’s dissolution—while exploring the South’s thriving textile industry in the first half of the twentieth century and the impact of the war on rural communities. This excerpt contains the first seven chapters of the novel, which focus on the start of the relationship between James and Edith, ending in the discovery of their affair by Celia, a woman who will unravel the fiction Edith has been living.