Book Description
This book is on discount promotion on Amazon for $0.99 (regularly $4.99) 10/19/2026 - 10/23/2026!
Leo Daughtry's debut novel, "Talmadge Farm," transports readers to the tobacco fields of 1950s North Carolina. "Talmadge Farm" reflects on the dreams and struggles of the American South, made more poignant by the author's personal experiences growing up among the tobacco fields of Sampson County, North Carolina, during periods of turbulent societal change.
It’s 1957, and tobacco is king. Wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge enjoys the lavish lifestyle he inherited but doesn’t like getting his hands dirty; he leaves that to the two sharecroppers – one white, one Black – who farm his tobacco but have bigger dreams for their own children. While Gordon takes no interest in the lives of his tenant farmers, a brutal attack between his son and the sharecropper children sets off a chain of events that leaves no one unscathed. Over the span of a decade, Gordon struggles to hold on to his family’s legacy as the old order makes way for a New South.
"Talmadge Farm" is a sweeping drama that follows three unforgettable families navigating the changing culture of North Carolina at a pivotal moment in history. A love letter to the American South, the novel is a story of resilience, hope, and family – both lost and found.
More About This Book
When and Why Should Someone Read It?
Set in North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s, Leo Daughtry’s story gives readers a cast of flawed characters that elicit sympathy, anger, love and hate. The Talmadges, landed gentry, and their two sharecropper families try to adjust to the changing political, economic and social landscape of the decade.
Themes, Ideas & Atmosphere
Family, both the one you’re born into and the one you make along the way; resilience; forgiveness; redemption.
If You Loved These, You'll Love This
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan; The Help by Kathryn Stockett; Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers.
The Story Behind the Book
My years growing up in tobacco country remain vivid in my mind. People at that time were victims of the circumstances they were born into, and yet new opportunities were beginning to emerge. Farming requires many hands, yet children of farm workers wanted a different life than their parents and began leaving the farm. This led to the advent of migrant workers traveling up and down the eastern United States. A lot of characters in the book are based on people I knew from my childhood.
The Central Question
It tells the story of a time of great upheaval in many areas – farming practices, banking innovations, desegregation – but change was necessary for moving forward.
Talmadge Farm - a historical fiction novel by Leo Daughtry, a book, promoted on Goodkindles for .