. . . Seven Locks combines history with legend to provide a vivid illustration of what the American Revolution meant for the civilian population and for women in particular. It is an interesting look at a part of the wartime history that is often given short-shrift by historians focused on battles and military strategies.
-Historical Novel Society
. . . a spellbinding depiction of the hardships faced by a woman fighting her own
war of independence.
-Kirkus Reviews
. . . this is a historical novel for those with an appreciation for the interior lives of
period figures.
-Publisher’s Weekly
…Seven Locks: A Novel is not your usual concept of historic novel. Instead of dwelling directly on July 4 and its aftermath, it is an exploration of the mind and emotions of one woman who happens to live before and during the American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley. Like all fine novels–and this is a very fine novel indeed–the story contains many worlds. The author’s ability to encapsulate recognizable truths–universal and timeless– concisely is part of the charm.
With a haunting and utterly unique voice, this is the story of a wife and mother living in a Dutch community in the Catskill Mountains on the eve of the American Revolution. . . . This novel gives voice not only to a hidden corner of history, but also to the common citizens who were buffeted by the winds of war and politics during the early years of your nation’s history. If you like historical fiction, don’t miss this one!
-The Next Chapter Bookstore, Knoxville, Iowa
Advance Praise
“A beautifully written tale that lives somewhere between landscape and memory,
where regret becomes a prison, and a story told often enough becomes truth.”
-Brunonia Barry, author
The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places
“Lyrical descriptions and graceful narrative pacing will remind readers of the work
of novelist Marilynne Robinson.”
-Elizabeth Nunez, author
Anna In-Between and Prospero’s Daughter
“The author gives spirited voices to the voiceless . . . with deft, vigorous, and
revelatory prose that penetrates the joys and uncertainties of the human heart.”
-Regina O’Melveny, author
The Book of Madness and Cures
“The author has spun a tale, both sensitive and clever in the end, that wonderfully evokes a seminal period in American history. A poignant blend of the magical, mystical, and factual.”
—Myra Armstead, author
Freedom’s Gardener
“Wade does with words what Turner and Constable did with paint. Seven Locks
brings the Hudson River valley and its settlers to life in this wise and haunting
debut.”
—-Charlotte Rogan, author
The Life Boat
More Advance Praise
“Being, like all American novels, very learned, sagacious, and nothing at all to the purpose, Seven Locks contains divers profound theories and philosophic speculations on the conditions of the latter day settlements of the province of Nieuw Nederlants. Along with the histories of the golden reign of Wouter Van Twiller, the chronicles of the reign’s of William the Testy, Peter Stuyvesant (also known as Peter the Headstrong) and his troubles with the Amphyctionic Council, the British nation, and the decline and fall of the Dutch dynasty which I have provided in several previously published volumns. Seven Locks adds a dimension worth proving and which the idle reader should not overlook.”
—- Diedrich Knickerbocker , historian and author
A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty
“The message of Seven Locks is to remember the ladies!—-something that my husband,
in spite of the persistent petition of his much acclaimed dearest friend, declined to do.”
—Abigail Adams, former First Lady of the United States of America, writer of letters
“The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions, to spread such flowers over the regions through which the intellect has already made its progress, as may tempt it to return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, or negligently regarded. The novel Seven Locks has attempted and met each of these challenges.”
—Samuel Johnson, author and journalist
A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson’s Dictionary
“The protagonist of Seven Locks should have come earlier to The Hague, where she
could read and write many letters, among a civilized people. She should have brought
her daughter too, and the both of them would have found the beginnings of an inclusive
literature, enough to make a reading life.”
—Elizabeth (Betje) Wolff-Bekker, author and activist
Bespiegelingen over het genoegen (‘Reflections on Pleasure’)
“Who would have known or thought that my letter to a slave girl upon the publication of
a poem, could start such a stir among the Ladies! Thank God that we won that war, so
that the novel Seven Locks could come forth upon the new nation.”
—George Washington, President of the United States of America
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