Join us as we celebrate the release of Lawrence Reid Bechtel’s novel A Partial Sun. A signing will follow. This event will be free and open to the public.
The first book in the Tinsmith’s Apprentice trilogy, A Partial Sun is a historical novel that tells the story of Isaac Granger, one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves, who in the fall of 1790 at age fifteen sets out with his master—along with James Hemings, Jefferson’s manservant—for Philadelphia. There, Isaac is apprenticed to a Quaker Tinsmith and works alongside three white apprentices, one of whom is violently hateful. While learning the trade, Isaac befriends a variety of persuasive and interesting characters, including Rachel Bringhouse, the tinsmith’s daughter, who teaches him to read and write. The second book in the trilogy, That Dazzling Sun, is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2020.
Lawrence Reid Bechtel graduated from Wheaton College with a BA in English in 1971 and then enjoyed various adventures, such as backpacking in Denali National Park in Alaska, before settling in Southwest Virginia. Here he has raised a family with his wife, Ann Shawhan, taught in the English Department at Virginia Tech, and established the university’s recycling program. Lawrence is also an author and a sculptor. After doing a portrait sculpture of Thomas Jefferson and then of one of Jefferson’s slaves, Isaac, he was inspired to write his historical novel, A Partial Sun, the first book in the Tinsmith’s Apprentice trilogy.