Cover of A Southern Exposure

A Southern Exposure

"A work that will be for many readers as memorable as the last decade's Superior Women, and her exquisite novel from the 1970s, Listening to Billie."

Read more

—San Francisco Chronicle

It is 1939, a brief, hopeful moment between the Depression and war. The Baird family—Harry, Cynthia, and their precocious daughter Abby—have escaped the burdens of their Connecticut life to salvage themselves in the sleepy southern town of Pinehill, North Carolina. But the Bairds soon discover that their new home is not quite as idyllic as it seemed up north. And while the family's fondest desire is to be enveloped by the timeless town and its eccentric characters, clouds of war loom darkly, suggesting the possibility of change. But who among them will change, and in what startling ways, remains to be seen. . . .

"What a terrific book. I loved its rich, recognizable characters, the intricacies and excitement of the plot, the beauty of the writing. I laughed out loud a number of times, growled with jealousy at Alice's skills, and stayed up all night to finish it."

—Annie Lamott

"Deliciously readable, evocative, sensuous, and intoxicating as a gossip with an old, smart friend."

—Mary Gordon

"A seductive panorama of a small southern town in the late 30s . . . With great truth and clarity, this novel captures it all."

—The Boston Globe

"Adams is a modern-day Jane Austen. . . . A Southern Exposure is a timeless comedy of manners."

—The Dallas Morning News

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 320 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked A Southern Exposure? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked A Southern Exposure. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Sufficient Grace Shares fiction, southern, contemporary fiction
  2. Night Rider Shares fiction, southern, historical fiction
  3. Miracle on I-40 Shares southern, fiction
  4. Drifting South Shares southern, fiction, contemporary fiction

“People who read A Southern Exposure tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Yonder Stands Your Orphan
  2. Letters From Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods
  3. Eat More Dirt: Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing and Tending an Organic Garden
  4. Where the Souls Go

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction), start with these.”

  1. Blaze
  2. The Secret Years
  3. Empire of Memory
  4. Alice Hartley's Happiness

“If it was the southern that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Roadwalkers
  2. Blue Calhoun
  3. The Ice Garden
  4. In the Hope of Rising Again

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Ever Is A Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past A Memoir
  2. The Night Child
  3. A Stockingful of Joy
  4. My Extraordinary Ordinary Life