Fremont by Elizabeth Reeder

Fremont is the debut book from Kohl Publishing that they’ve been publicising gradually for a while now. It was maybe a risk to do that, but this book probably justifies it. The Fremont family begin in the opening pages when Rachel Roanoke and Hal Fremont meet and quickly get married and start a family. This start is something of a jolt, but the book settles a little after that as the couple start a family, having 13 children that they name, unusually, after American states.

Much of this detail suggests some kind of allegory - Fremont and Roanoke are places on each coast of America, and there were 13 original United States, though these aren’t all the ones the children are named after. But this sort of detail isn’t crammed down the reader’s throat, and the book is the better for that. It takes on an apparently slow pace with a nice quality where more happens than initially appears, like a fairytale at times, or a fable. The children all become fully realised characters, so there is plenty of story to tell, and be warned that some of that is tragic. A haunting book about a dysfunctional, fascinating family. [Johnny Chess]