Book Smart

Sand Mansions: A Novel (NEMO Productions, distributed by University of Wisconsin Press, 2005)
Norman Gilliland, producer, Wisconsin Public Radio

Gilliland’s first novel, “Sand Mansions,” follows the fortunes of one Nathaniel Larrabee in the years following the Civil War.

Larrabee takes a whopper of a wrong turn. In leaving Missouri for the gold fields of Dakota, Larrabee winds up in Alachua County, Fla. It is 1876, a presidential election year. The close race between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes finally elects Hayes, but not before the Florida citizens weigh in at the ballot box early and often. In addition to the questionable election, Larrabee negotiates scams, politics, devastating yellow fever epidemic and dealings with a notorious African-American outlaw and his Irish priest accomplice.

Much of the plot is based on fact, and many of the characters were real, Gilliland says.

“One of the most prosperous planters there was a man of mixed blood who was born a slave, drafted into the Confederate army, was captured and later served in the Federal Army. How many Americans served in both Confederate and Union armies?” Gilliland asks.

Similarly, he based his outlaw character on historic desperado Harmon Murray. The priest who rode with Murray also was inspired by a real figure, lynched for his misdeeds.

Gilliland’s appreciation for the Civil War’s complexity grew as he worked on the book, “which I wrote in three drafts over the course of 25 years,” he says. “Although Florida did secede from the Union, residents of Florida were not wholly loyal to the Confederacy. Many of the cattle that the Confederate army needed went to Cuba instead because prices were better there. And Florida Sen. Yulee refused to allow the Confederacy to relocate his railroad to an area more favorable to troop movements.”

Gilliland is at work on three new novels: one set again in Florida in 1929, one in contemporary Maine and one taking place in Wisconsin and interweaving stories 150 years apart.

Meanwhile, he hopes that this new novel will transport its readers to a completely different reality.

— Barbara Wolff