Marriage and Other Monuments with Virginia Pye

Marriage and Other Monuments is a multigenerational drama set against a tumultuous time of racial tension in the South. In the summer of 2020, social justice protests and the removal of Confederate monuments rock the city of Richmond as the marriages of two estranged sisters implode. When Cynthia’s husband, Bobby, can no longer hide his dire financial situation, their union finally ruptures. Melissa, her sister, has dedicated herself so fully to racial justice activism that she alienates her own Black husband. As the summer heats up and their marriages veer in opposite directions, the sisters have no choice but to turn to one another. Meanwhile, their husbands conspire in a racial reckoning that their ancestors—one old Virginia White, the other old Virginia Black—would never have dreamed of. Marriage and Other Monuments concerns secrets within marriage, the erosion of trust, and how partners must ultimately decide what’s more important: being true to who they are as individuals or holding on to illusions of the past. Virginia Pye is the author of four award-winning books of fiction, including two post-colonial historical novels set in China, River of Dust and Dreams of the Red Phoenix, and the short story collection, Shelf Life of Happiness. Her last novel, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann is a love story to writers and readers set in Gilded Age Boston. Virginia’s essays have appeared in The New York Time