Book Buzz: The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders
“I was visiting a bookstore when I dreamed up the opening lines to The Great Wherever. I was standing in my favorite sections―literary fiction―browsing backlist titles and delighting at how some of my longtime favorites blended the modern and hyper-realistic with unexpected elements of the supernatural. I’d been noodling over a novel for years by then, and suddenly―as if a key had turned in a lock―one began writing itself on the journal in my mind. First came the opening words, and then a sudden revelation: A ghost should tell this story.”
― Shannon Sanders, Letter to booksellers
What booksellers are saying about The Great Wherever
- A winding tale of Aubrey Lamb and her journey in adulthood after the loss of her father and the breakup of her longtime boyfriend. She is joined in her tale by four family ghosts connected to her family land in Tennessee, who share through flashbacks their own stories and connections to the land.
― Emily, Story Hollow, Madisonville, Tennessee | BUY
- Well-crafted debut novel brimming with atmosphere and family secrets, this story chronicles the lives of the Lamb family through multiple generations on their farm near Memphis. This story is rich and complex with lots of skeletons in the family closet.
― Karen, Righton Books, St Simons Island, Georgia | BUY
- Loved this one! An interesting look at how our family affects us, even generations later. I wonder what my own ghosts would have to say?
― Brooke, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, North Carolina | BUY
- This novel captures how generational trauma is inherited over time and beautifully illustrates themes of identity, self-worth, and personal growth. It shows how, despite balking against our family tree, the past continues to live on in us. There is charm and wisdom in Sanders’ storytelling. While much difficult history is explored, it’s handled with tenderness, grace, and humor.
― Sarah, Old Town Books, Alexandria, Virginia | BUY
About Shannon Sanders
Shannon Sanders is the author of the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named one of the best books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly and Debutiful, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including One Story, The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and has received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.
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“When I sat down to write this novel, it ended up going in a completely different direction than what I had intended. I’d originally wanted to write an unrequited love story. As I was writing the first few scenes, I was like, “Oh, these people actually both love each other, so that’s not working. Also, I really feel the need to explore how this character has come to love in this way, and to deny herself love in this way.
“There are only so many stories out there—people say seven—but for me, the question is always: what is the question I want to ask?…In Kin, the question I was interested in interrogating is the idea of searching for one’s mother. The classic story tells us, of course you search for your mother. If someone says, I don’t know where my mother is, we frame it as a brave quest to find her. But I wanted to question that impulse. Is it always better to know? Is it okay not to know? Can we learn to be satisfied with not knowing? In real life, people can be satisfied with what they have. In real life, you can marry someone who isn’t the person you once dreamed of and still have a good life. In a story, that’s often treated as an unpardonable compromise. I’m trying to bring into story life the wisdom we already know from real life.”
