Winner, the 2023 Phillis Wheatley Historical Fiction Prize

Winner, The 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards African American Fiction Award

Finalist, the 2023 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal

Finalist, the 2023 Indie Book Historical Fiction Awards

5 Stars Award, Reader's Favorite 2023

“Calloway’s elegant prose effectively captures the tension and textures of the period… he shows himself to be such a talented writer of historical fiction that the biographical element of the work barely registers.” – Kirkus Reviews   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-calloway/if-someday-comes/

“This is an essential read… for readers looking for a more accurate view of true history.” 4/5 stars – The San Francisco Book Review

“David Calloway has written a powerful and moving story… His writing style draws in the reader from the first page…not easily forgotten.” 4.5 stars – The Manhattan Book Review

“This book uses stunning and gripping prose to take readers on an unforgettable experience into a time and place that we must never forget...”  5 stars – Readers' Favorite

This historical novel is the first of three, telling the life stories of the men in my family. The next will be the story of my Grandfather, James Calloway and the building of Tuskegee

Email: David Calloway,  ifsomedaycomes@gmail.com

IF SOMEDAY COMES

David Calloway

Point Fermin Publishing (419 pp.) ISBN: 979-8-9865014-0-6

KIRKUS BOOK REVIEW

In this debut historical novel, Calloway fictionalizes the story of his enslaved Black great-grandfather.

George Calloway was born into slavery in 1829 in Cleveland, Tennessee. From the age of 12, he was expected to work as hard as a grown man, and he did. Indeed, he worked so hard that when the White overseer died, George was made the manager of the farm at the age of 18: “He was proud of the fact that the farm produced more per acre with him as boss than under old Bryant. He was proud of the straight rows, taut fences….George could run a farm as well as any man.” Now, on the eve of the Civil War, George is married with a child, and they live in a small cabin on the land that his enslaver owns. Marsa Thom, as George calls him, is the biological father of George and his siblings, although this relationship isn’t acknowledged openly. Still, the horrors of slavery affect George’s family deeply: His freedman father-in-law, after a run-in with a White man, is whipped within an inch of his life, and his enslaved younger brother Henry is sent off to work at a plantation in New Orleans in exchange for cash. George and his family do what they can to support people who decide to run for freedom, including his younger brother Louis, a frequent (and frequently recaptured) escapee. Change may be coming soon, however, with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and a rumored potential invasion of the South by abolitionists. George isn’t sure what war might bring—an end to slavery is almost too outlandish for him to imagine—but one thing’s for sure: Tennessee is about to get a lot more violent.

Calloway’s elegant prose effectively captures the tension and textures of the period, as when George comes upon some neighbors celebrating the surrender of Fort Sumter: “George walked out into the front office and stopped short when he saw the jug of moonshine spilling on the out-of-town newspapers that had just come in that morning. Acock was so drunk that his hand listed badly to one side spilling the clear liquid, smearing the message of Confederate Sovereignty printed on the front pages.” Although the author presents the novel as something of a family history project, he shows himself to be such a talented writer of historical fiction that the biographical element of the work barely registers. George and his family are complexly rendered characters, and it’s only the occasional photographs and footnotes that remind the reader of the underlying reality of the story. This relationship to true history complicates some of the less-realistic aspects of the plot, such as the oddly honorable depiction of enslaver Marsa Thom, whose sympathetic rendering will likely be off-putting to some readers. It’s a lengthy novel at more than 400 pages, but Calloway largely earns the length with his nuanced depictions of life in Bradley County.

A sprawling, often engaging story of a family in bondage set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

If Someday Comes By David Calloway

Self-Published, $17.95, 427 pages, Format: Trade

Manhattan Book Review 

Star Rating: 4.5 / 5

To know the United States of America requires you to know its history, and a big part of that history is the Civil War, when American citizen tumed on American citizen. As Shelby Foote observed, "to understand America, you must first understand the Civil War." And to understand the Civil War, you have to know of slavery and what America was like when slavery ruled its people, whether they were slave owners or slaves themselves. Author David Calloway, in his book If Sorneday Comes: A Slave's Story of Freedom, goes one step further, "The war defined us then, defines us now."

This is the story of George Calloway, David Calloway's great-grandfather, who was born into slavery on January 8, 1829. While the author considers it a work of historical fiction, it is more "fact than fiction" with the immense amount of research the author has done, immersing himself in the lives of his relatives, as he was taken "to the town of Cleveland, Tennessee, to slave schedules, to the front of an old family bible."

Under the author's hand we don't get to just see the day-to-day lives of these incredible people, but he takes crucial time to describe scenery and architecture and the way everything looks, which not only gives context but brings the very story to life before the reader's eyes. In this way, you live George's life vicariously, as he suffered through slavery, to his service to his country in the Civil War, to the family and legacy he fostered and grew, which continues to thrive until this day.

David Calloway has written a powerful and moving story in If Someday Comes. His writing style draws the reader in from the very first page, and when they realize these are real people from American history, it becomes all the more compelling. The story is presented in chronological order, along with dates for each chapter. The book also provides a map of Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1863, along with a family tree for George Calloway that is as accurate as historicat sources allow.

But the real gems are the photos the author has inserted into the book of George and other Calloways, as well as photos of the Calloway house at different points in time, and other incredible pieces of history like the American and Confederate flags in 1861 and a Miscegenation ball flyer, to name a few. Calloway also provides a list of illustrations for easy reference.

If Someday Comes is a moving story of a man's life that has its dark moments in slavery, but also moments of light and beauty in Calloway's family; it is a story not easily forgotten.

Reviewed by Alex Telander

If Someday Comes

By David Calloway

Self-Published, $17.95, 427 pages, Format: Trade

Star Rating: 4 / 5

George Calloway was born into slavery in 1826. His mother was enslaved, and his biological father was the White owner of the Calloway Farms. At age twelve, George took his place with the rest of the black men and was expected to work like a grown slave. At eighteen, George was named the fam manager. Marsa Thom would remark that George could run his farm as wen as any man- Marsa Thom would also comment to other white slave owners, *Why would I pay a rnan to do a job I could get done for free?". That was the fife George would live: he was capable and Ousted but std! enslaved. George married and fathered children. He was a good son and brothel. He helped build a church tor his father-in-kaw and was well-known and respected around town but until 1866 he was enslaved.

It Someday Comes: A Slave's Story of Freedom by David Calloway is the historical fiction of the life of his great-grandfather George Calloway. As a white man reviewing this book. I found it very eye-opening. Calloway's book covers the final nine years of slavery as a legalized institution and includes accounts of the American Civil War as it impacts the town of Cleveland. Tennessee. Calloway wrote his hook trom the stoties he heard growing up. Most of this novet is based on fact. The people. actions, and places are ail based on tact. Calioway admitted to embellishing details Mien information wasn*t readily available. For a large part it's a historical account of a troubled time in American history and the lives of his relatives during that time.

This is an essential read. While this may be a historical tale of one man. the overall picture one gets of that time is important in keeping history alive. Calloway does not white-wash the facts. He only dresses up the mundane to keep the story going. Accounts from people  who lived the events should never be discounted just because they don't offer a comfortable, feel-good story.

It is not a broad history of that time but an in-depth look at one person's experiences. This book is for readers looking for a more accurate view of true history. With the stories coming from his own family Calloway is able to provide a more personal account of Lhe events. Readers need to acknowledge that this era jn the U.S. is not that long ago. George is only one generation removed frorn himset{. 150 years is not that long of a time, and family memories are still fresh.

Reviewed by Eric Smith