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    The Widow and the Tree
    The Widow and the Tree
    The Widow and the Tree
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Widow and the Tree

    Written by Sonny Brewer

    Narrated by Tom Stechschulte

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With novels such as The Poet of Tolstoy Park to his credit, Sonny Brewer has established himself as one of the South's most critically acclaimed authors. The Widow and the Tree features a 500-year-old Ghosthead Oak, whose stately presence has borne witness to the rise and fall of generations, to the hopes and dreams of untold lives, and to the births and deaths of innumerable residents along coastal Alabama. So why would a widow enter a biker bar and hire a man to chainsaw the cherished landmark?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 23, 2010
    ISBN9781440790591
    The Widow and the Tree

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    • 4/5
      On a patch of dry land in the swampy rural coastline of Alabama there grows a 500 year old live oak tree. Larger than any other tree in the area, the Ghosthead Oak (so called because of a knot on its trunk that resembles a twisted face) grows on land owned for generations by the family of the widow who now lives there alone with her dog, quietly mourning her dead husband. It is the focus of many of her memories, and those of the Vietnam veteran who lives in an Airstream trailer on a patch of land walking distance from the widow’s 100 acre plot. Both have long turned to the tree and its hugely spreading branches for solace, comfort, and solitude. Many others in the community are drawn to the tree as well, despite the widow’s reputation as a reclusive sharp-shooter who takes aim at all trespassers. Young lovers come to the tree, as do drug dealers, tourists, and thrill-seekers. In addition, the local game warden has designs of his own on the tree, seeking both to buy the veteran’s small plot of land and also to introduce legislation that would take the widow’s land out from under her and turn it into a park celebrating the ancient tree. As the fight over who owns the Ghosthead Oak—or if anyone can ever be said to truly own a thing like a 500 year old tree in the first place—commences, other presences, including a watchful crow and a strangely menacing black panther, haunt the swamp and the tree’s environs. As the battle heats up, the widow finds herself haunted more and more by both the memories she has surrounding the tree, but also by the very fact of the tree’s existence, and she finds herself forced to make a difficult decision regarding the future of the ancient Ghosthead Oak.Inspired by true events, “The Widow and the Tree” has the flavor of fable. Straightforwardly told, yet lyrical in its descriptions of the power of nature and emotion, this book is highly recommended.