Even As We Breathe
By Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville’s luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. The experience introduces him to the beautiful and enigmatic Essie Stamper—a young Cherokee woman who is also working at the inn and dreaming of a better life. With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. A secret room becomes a place where Cowney and Essie can escape the white world of the inn and imagine their futures free of the shadows of their families’ pasts.
Outside of this refuge, however, racism and prejudice are never far behind, and when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing, Cowney finds himself accused of abduction and murder. Even As We Breathe invokes the elements of bone, blood, and flesh as Cowney navigates difficult social, cultural, and ethnic divides. Betrayed by the friends he trusted, he begins to unearth deeper mysteries as he works to prove his innocence and clear his name. This richly written debut novel explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity’s lasting legacy.
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Author Talk
Join us as we wrap up the next installment of the NC Museum of History’s Plott Hound Literary Circle with a special virtual book talk! Award-winning author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle will be discussing her critically acclaimed novel Even As We Breathe. Have you read the book and have a question for the author? Attendees will be invited to submit questions in advance of the program, so be sure to watch for upcoming opportunities to participate!
Book Discussion Questions
- Borders and boundaries are everywhere in this book: between Asheville and the reservation, between freedom and confinement, and between different cultures. Which boundary felt the most unforgiving to you and why?
- The Grove Park Inn acted as a strange, high-society bubble where upper-class Axis diplomats were held as prisoners of war (POWs), guarded by the military, and served by locals like Essie and Cowney. How did this setting highlight the intersecting lines of class, race, and privilege? Who was truly “free,” and who was imprisoned within the walls of the resort?
- At first, Cowney believes the opportunity at the Grove Park Inn to be a chance for self-reinvention, far from the difficulties he has faced within the Qualla Boundary. After undergoing so many life-changing experiences during his time working there, do you feel that Cowney achieved his goal of reinventing himself?
- Throughout the book, bones—literally and figuratively—hold immense importance, representing hidden family stories, mysteries and bringing to light sometimes difficult truths. In your own personal history, have you ever discovered a long-hidden secret or a challenging truth about yourself, your family, or your community? What effect did this uncovered truth from your history have on your present-day life?
Contextual Statement
Shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, the US State Department’s Special Problems Division began detaining Axis diplomats, their families, consular staff, and other civilians at various locations throughout the United States, including North Carolina. World War II era North Carolina saw thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) from several Axis powers living at various military installations around the state. In 1942 the Special War Problems Division rented two luxury retreats in the mountains of North Carolina to hold Japanese, German, and Italian diplomats, as well as businesspeople. These prisoners were either heading to other facilities or awaiting exchange for American citizens who found themselves trapped overseas in Axis territories. One of the places that the Special War Problems Division leased for these diplomats, their families, and exchange internees was the Grove Park Inn (now the Omni Grove Park Inn) resort in Asheville. While technically prisoners at an internment camp, and certainly with varied experiences, these detainees were given more luxurious accommodations than most and freedom to roam the grounds of the resort at their leisure. In the novel, Cowney and Essie are hired to work at the Grove Park Inn during this time. Often times locals, both those working at the resort as well as residents of Asheville and the surrounding areas, interacted with the prisoners through normal daily life.
In Even as We Breathe, Cowney talked about living on the Qualla Boundary. The Qualla Boundary is the official name for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee's land, located in western North Carolina. The origins of the acreage came from the alliance between the Cherokee people and William Holland Thomas. In the 1840s, Thomas purchased the land for the Cherokee people under his name, following the forced relocation of the Cherokee people during the Trail of Tears from 1838–1839. Through the Treaty of Washington in 1866, the United States recognized the right of the Cherokee to own and control land. In 1867, the 57,000 acres were surveyed, and the Qualla Boundary was established and officially designated as Cherokee land. The survey also established that the land was and would remain outside of federal and state government jurisdiction. If you would like to learn more about the Qualla Boundary, you can visit NCPedia’s webpage.