Leander's Lies

Elias Leander Muller did not hunt with Teddy Roosevelt in the Dismal Swamp, as he claimed. He never represented North Carolina in the U.S. Congress. He never lived on a plantation.

Lies. All lies.

In the post-Civil War South, Elias grows up along the eastern edge of North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains. A gifted boy, he imagines himself becoming a prominent politician or eloquent preacher. But early marriage and fatherhood trap him in the life he'd hoped to avoid: that of a poor tenant farmer. When the Panic of 1893 sends a financial blow to the entire country, Elias, like many farmers, is heavily in debt. He abandons Emma and their sons. Going by the name of Leander, he reinvents himself.

The South has changed since he first mapped out his political ambitions. A Republican (as in the Party of Lincoln), he recognizes the futility of confronting the powerful Democratic Party. Where to go? What to do?

Leander is an anti-hero, a man whose deceptions escalate at grave cost to others.

Until escape becomes exile.