The era is the early forties to the beginning of World War II, the place is No Creek, North Carolina. The principal players are Celia Percy, Lilliana Swope, Hyacinth Belvidere, Jesse Willard, a few other characters who populate No Creek, and a couple of characters who live in Pennsylvania. The circumstances include wife abuse (physical, emotional, and spiritual), KKK activities, moonshining, and rape. Cathy Gohlke has treated these societal ills with her usual high quality style. Night Bird Calling is one of those novels that you don't want to put down, but you don't want it to end; it's like seeing a train wreck--you don't want to watch it but you can't look away.
After Lilliana's mother's funeral, Lilliana falls asleep in one of the pews of the church waiting for her husband to take her home. She overhears her husband and her father, both elders in the church, discussing how her husband can get rid of her to marry someone else. She knows she can't go home to her husband or her father, so she walks to the train station and gets the first train out of Philadelphia to No Creek. Her great-aunt Hyacinth will take her in, she hopes.
I found this book to be engrossing, compelling, and wholly intriguing. The only problem I had with the book is that the author bounces back and forth between first person--Lilliana telling her own story, and third person narration to fill in the gaps between Lilliana's parts. It is still a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a whip-poor-will singing at night.
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