Meanwhile, Christmas is in a wild, restless mood, and keeps telling himself that he had to kill Joanna because she started praying over him. At this point, Brown tells the sheriff that Christmas killed Joanna and that he once confessed to Brown that he’s black (though he passes as white). Her nephew in the North offers a reward of $1000 for whoever finds the murderer. It then emerges that Joanna’s dead body was found in the house with the head almost completely sawed off.

Beard’s boarding house, where he also lives. Hightower and Byron discuss the burning house, which is Joanna’s. Eventually everyone forgot about the scandal and left Hightower alone to lead a reclusive life. Although he resigned, he refused to leave the town, even after being violently intimidated by the KKK. Following this scandal, Hightower was pressured into resigning as a minister and leaving Jefferson. Hightower, who had an affair with another man and ended up dying in Memphis (it is unclear whether this was murder, an accident, or suicide). Hightower fell from grace due to the actions of his wife, Mrs. However, they quickly realize that Lucas is actually Joe Brown, and that he’s been living under this fake name. Byron falls in love with Lena, and agrees to help her find Lucas. When Lena arrives in Jefferson, she finds Byron at the planing mill, having been told he was Lucas (in reality, there was a mix-up due to the similarity of the two men’s last names, Bunch and Burch). Brown starts running a business selling bootleg whisky, and people suspect Christmas is involved too.īyron has worked at the planing mill for seven years, although his only friend in Jefferson is the disgraced minister Rev. Shortly after, another newcomer to Jefferson and the planing mill, Joe Brown, moves into the cabin as well. Soon Christmas moves into a “negro cabin” on the property of the middle-aged white “spinster” Joanna Burden.

The stranger seemed to come from nowhere, and had the odd name of Joe Christmas. The next day, Lena arrives in the town of Jefferson and sees a house burning in the distance.īyron Bunch, a worker in the Jefferson planing mill, recalls when a stranger showed up and began working at the mill. Armistid’s wife, Martha, takes pity on Lena and gives her the money she’s been saving up from selling eggs. She is confident that she will find him and that the family will be reunited by the time the baby comes. Lena explains that she is looking for the father of her child, Lucas Burch, who left Alabama and promised to send for her but seemingly never did. On the journey she encounters two men, Winterbottom and Armistid Armistid offers her a ride and then invites her to stay the night at his house. Lena Grove, a pregnant and unmarried young woman, is traveling barefoot from Alabama to Mississippi.

Light in august book