Welcome to the Basque Museum Book Club. We will list our books, synopsis of each, and info on any presentation/gathering for them. Be sure to get your book from the Museum Store!
January 2022 Book – Bill Judy by RW Bennett
Presentation February 24, 6pm – Basque Museum
It is April 1865. The South has been devastated by the most brutal war ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. Out of the ruin we follow the lives of two unlikely characters — Samuel Moore, a newly freed slave and Bill Judy, a recently discharged Confederate soldier. Bill leaves Appomattox on foot. His reluctant destination is a broken-down farm, a drunken father and an abused mother, 400 miles away. He is purposeless. Samuel has a goal and is undeterred. He knows what he wants and is determined to get it but he needs help and he knows it. Fate links them and they choose to travel together. Samuel is savvy, he knows the land and how survive amid the hostility and bitterness of a defeated people. Bill is battle-wise and hardened by war. He can provide and legitimacy for Samuel who knows he will face discrimination, violence and hatred. They reach a juncture after crossing two states. Bill must decide, will he go back to his father’s life of poverty and hopelessness or will he accept the ex-slave’s dream as his own and follow him to a better life. He chooses the later. Together they cross the Deep South and work and travel across America’s heartland. This is an intense story of true friendship filled with the unforgettable characters Samuel and Bill cross paths with as they travel across America. There is kindness, generosity, love, brutality, hard work, humor, discrimination and hope. Their relationship moves from mutual necessity to friendship to brotherhood.