David Nicholson's The Garretts of Columbia selected as a Favorite Book of 2024 by Washington Independent Review of Books

November 25, 2024 | by uscpress

The Washington Independent Review of Books selected The Garretts of Columbia by David Nicholson as one of its 51 Favorite Books of 2024. The Independent was launched in 2011 by writers and editors (mostly in the Washington, DC, area) who were frustrated by the disappearance of high-quality book reviews in major newspapers.

In The Garretts of Columbia, David Nicholson tells a multigenerational story of Black hope and resilience. Carefully researched and beautifully written, The Garretts of Columbia engages readers with stories of a family whose members believed in the possibility of America. Nicholson relates the sacrifices, defeats, and arming victories of a cohort of stalwart men and women who embraced education, fought for their country, and asserted their dignity in the face of a society that denied their humanity and discounted their abilities. The letters of Anna Maria “Mama” Threewitts Garrett, along with other archival sources and family stories passed down through generations, provide the framework that allows Nicholson to trace his family’s deep history, and with it a representative tale about Black life in segregated Columbia, South Carolina, from the years after the Civil War to World War II.

David Nicholson is a former editor and book reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and author of Flying Home: Seven Stories of the Secret City. He attended Haverford College before graduating from the University of the District of Columbia. Nicholson has worked as a reporter in San Francisco; Milwaukee; and Dayton, Ohio. He lives in Vienna, Virginia, with his wife and son.

View the full 51 Favorite Books of 2024 list.