Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine is the latest pick for the Good Morning America book club.
Eckstine’s debut novel, published Tuesday by Ballantine, follows the title character, an enslaved teenager in 1860 Alabama, who makes a rash decision that results in her older sister rising from the grave. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Featuring a spirited protagonist, this compelling mix of the historical and the supernatural will resonate.”
Deborah Roberts of ABC News announced the book’s selection on the morning show, saying, “Readers are going to be enthralled with the young enslaved woman at the center of this powerful book from Page 1.”
In an interview with Eckstine, Roberts said, “You balance the heartbreak of a shameful period of American history, slavery, with the beauty of a young, oppressed woman who is enslaved. How difficult was it to strike that balance?”
“I wanted to ensure that the characters themselves really came through with the full complexity of humanity,” Eckstine said. “Slavery went on for 250-plus years in the United States. People lived their entire lives under this system, meaning that they experienced the entire breadth of life from birth to death. So everything that you and I experience—love, grief, sorrow, joy—all of those experiences were happening under this system.”
Asked by Roberts what led her to explore slavery in America, Eckstine said, “My grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother, her name was Jane Cotton, and she was enslaved in Lowndes County, Alabama, and she actually escaped just before the Civil War. My grandmother used to tell me the story all the time.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
