Trace

In this lyrical and geographically expansive work, Lauret Savoy traverses the American continent to explore the deep, often hidden connections between landscape, memory, and racial identity. Moving from the San Andreas Fault to the U.S.-Mexico border, and from South Carolina plantations to the nation's capital, she treats the land as a palimpsest inscribed with the histories of Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, and European colonists. The book functions as both a personal memoir and a public history, using specific sites to interrogate how ideas of race and displacement have shaped the physical and social terrain of the United States.

Savoy’s prose is distinctive for its attention to the rhythms of language and the physicality of place, weaving together personal narrative with geological and historical inquiry. By juxtaposing the deep time of the earth with the recent, often violent history of human migration, she reveals the 'often unvoiced presence of the past.' The result is a mosaic that is as much about the act of tracing and naming as it is about the events themselves, offering a contemplative yet urgent perspective on the nation's unfolding story.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.