A Short Time to Stay Here

WINNER OF THE 2012 WILLIE MORRIS AWARD FOR SOUTHERN FICTION

War changes everything that should have been the summer of 1917.

The U.S. enters WWI and Stephen Robbins' beloved Mountain Park Hotel is pressed into service as an internment camp for over 2,000 German nationals, including Hans Ruser and his men. Feisty Anna Ulmann, seeking independence in a male-dominated world, flees south from New York to devote her life to documentary photography in beautiful Hot Springs, North Carolina. Haunted by demons past and present, they face heartbreaking tragedy. Yet together discover the true meaning of imprisonment and escape.

"Thrilling story of the clash of cultures, of mystery, espionage, revenge, and love. ... a riveting story bringing to life a particular Appalachian time and place,
by one of the exciting new voices of Southern fiction."
--Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek & Brave Enemies

"Roberts brings to life the historical circumstance and much more."
--Doris Betts, author of Souls Raised from the Dead & The Sharp Teeth of Love

"So much to like: the village itself, stretched out alongside the French Broad River,
its famous hotel now used to house German civilians during wartime; the man in charge with his many decisions to be made; the woman he meets and how--page by page, month by month, they fall in love."
--John Ehle, author of The Winter People & The Journey of August King

"Brilliantly plotted and rendered in a style both lyrical and concretely realistic, flawless in characterization with an authoritative command of the history that enfolds it."
--Jerry Leath Mills, Editor Emeritus, Studies in Philology

"Vital, absorbing novel"
--Elizabeth Spencer, author of Voice at the Back Door & Light in the Piazza