Right before the release of his debut novel, Nathan Harris was driving in Austin when he declined a phone call that would change his life.
“It was a number I didn’t recognize,” he said. “Then I got a text afterward.”
Somebody claiming to be Oprah Winfrey was looking to speak to him, a scenario that seemed so implausible to Harris that a friend had to talk him into responding.
“It seemed like a prank to me,” Harris explained. “I eventually called back.”
Harris had a discussion with Winfrey where she said she loved his first book, “The Sweetness of Water,” a historical fiction that follows two brothers emancipated from slavery after the Civil War.
“I was more interested in what happened in the literal days after the war ended,” said Harris, “and that was the start of the book.”
Nathan Harris. Photo by Hannah Kinchen
Harris began on “The Sweetness of Water” while in school at the University of Oregon. He fleshed out the plot after graduating.
“I would write in the morning from about 7 to 9,” he explained. “Then I would Postmates afterward.”
Harris finished the book as a part of his MFA program at the University of Texas’s Michener Center for Writers. Oprah loved the final product so much, she chose “The Sweetness of Water” for her book club in June of 2021.
The book also earned an Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, a spot on Obama’s Summer Reading List and was longlisted for a Booker Prize.
“Right now I’m paying my bill as a writer,” he said. “I have not returned to Postmates, but I still have the bag if necessary.”
This year, Harris released his follow-up, “Amity,” a piece of historical fiction set in the Reconstruction era. He got the inspiration to write it after reading real historical accounts of the time period.
“After the Civil War, there were Confederate loyalists who moved to Mexico and bought up huge tracts of land to recreate the agrarian lifestyle they had before the war,” said Harris. “Then I learned that they brought along freed slaves who they forced to go on this journey.”
Amity centers around Coleman and June, a brother and sister once owned by the Harper family.
After Emancipation, the patriarch Mr. Harper takes June to Mexico with him to reestablish antebellum life. Coleman is left at home in New Orleans to serve Mrs. Harper, their child Florence and the family dog.
Then, one day a letter arrives summoning Coleman to Mexico, sending him through a sprawling adventure out west in the hopes of reuniting with his sister.
“I think ‘Amity’ will appeal to anybody who wants to learn a little bit more about the Reconstruction era,” Harris said. “But it’s also a moving story just about siblings – siblings trying to find peace, trying to find true freedom and trying to just survive.”
Much of the book takes place on the treacherous western frontier, something that Harris initially struggled to capture when he started on the book.
“I was running into just the issue of like sense impressions. Like what did it look like? What did it feel like?” explained Harris. “So I went to Big Bend. I felt the vastness.”
Since its release, “Amity” hasn’t had the same overwhelming reception as “The Sweetness of Water,” but the book has reached its intended audience.
“Just a few days ago I got an email from a 74-year-old who said I’m the first author she has ever written. She loved both my books,” explained Harris. “She just had to reach out and that means so much.”
