Black Sheep tells the story of the mythical American family named Dysen. Tom Dysen and John Williston, former college roommates, take a canoe trip down the Suwannee River from the Okefenokee Swamp. John, the approximate protagonist, is a young black intellectual from the north, who is escaping personal troubles by coming south and plunging into the wilderness. Days later he emerges awakened by developments in which more than his identity and vocation have been shattered and reconstructed. One catalyst is family stories told by Tom's father, Garret Dysen, on the banks of the St. Johns River in...

Cephton Lansbury has retired to historic Savannah and made the acquaintance of a group of bright, well-educated professionals. Among the elegant houses in this glorious tropical setting, they enjoy a convivial life of good food, drink, and conversation. Novelist Anders Ratliff records it all on the way to understanding something quite different. Blind and destructive fores are at work beneath the tranquil social surface. Natural and human adversities erupt when Cephton, a philosopher, falls for the seductive Ava Foster during a hurricane and her jealous husband Lucas takes revenge at the...