Holding True by Emily Dietrich

Holding True starts with the sexual energy buzzing amid civil rights activists in early ’60s Detroit, and ends twenty years later at a commune in remotest northern Michigan devoted to living out the values of the civil rights movement. The novel follows Martina Vanbeck, conceived by out of wedlock activists, who comes into the world destined to be an outcast by her dying mother’s stipulation that Martina, white granddaughter of wealth, be raised on the black side of town. After a series of heartbreaking attempts at friendship, Martie becomes a founder of Copper Hill Commune and offers to house it in the Vanbeck ancestral home, where Martie spent her childhood summers playing with Davey, a local boy. Davey has become a gentle but unstable man whose almost obsessive adoration of Martie is obvious to everyone but her. Davey watches the commune closely, convinced that Martie is participating against her will. Within the commune, deadly schisms develop, leading one staunch member to stockpile firepower to protect them. When Davey’s “rescue” of Martie collides with the discovery of Copper Hill Commune’s weapons cache, the commune’s explosive demise is inevitable.