Surviving Savannah is the 16th novel by American author Patti Callahan. Callahan often focuses on Southern women and their untold stories, both contemporary and historical. These topics are ever-present in Surviving Savannah. With immersive descriptions and thoughtful storytelling, the novel garnered many positive reviews. Callahan is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today best-selling author. This guide refers to the 2021 print edition of the novel published by Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: Surviving Savannah contains descriptions of domestic violence, sexual assault, slavery, racism, murder, and the death of a small child.

Plot Summary

The novel weaves together two timelines through the eyes of three characters. In the present is Everly Winthrop, while in 1838 readers see the story through the eyes of Lilly Forsyth and Augusta Longstreet. The book begins by telling the story of Everly’s birth in a bathtub. Her mother, Harriet Winthrop, decided to take a bath before going to the hospital. Everly’s life is informed by storytelling, especially from her paternal grandfather, called Papa. When Everly is a child, Papa details wild accounts of the explosion of the steam packet Pulaski. In particular, he focuses on Lilly Forsyth, a woman who survived the disaster but disappeared shortly thereafter and has a statue dedicated to her in Savannah, Georgia. Everly becomes a historian, teaching art history at Savannah College of Art and Design. She’s teaching her penultimate class of the spring semester when Oliver Samford appears. He asks her to curate an exhibit about the Pulaski, since the ship’s wreckage has just been found. Everly is hesitant because she is grieving the death of Mora, her childhood best friend and Oliver’s fiancée. Oliver cajoles her into curating the exhibit by showing pieces of the ship’s wreckage.

As Everly begins researching the ship, the story jumps back in time to Lilly Forsyth and Augusta Longstreet. Lilly and Augusta are Savannah socialites. Lilly is Augusta’s niece. Lilly is unhappily married to the abusive Adam Forsyth and craves the freedom Augusta enjoys. Augusta’s fiancé died before they were wed, so society treats her more as a widow than as an unmarried woman. Augusta wishes that she were married and had a child as Lilly does. Each wants what the other has as they board the Pulaski. Lilly and her nursemaid, an enslaved woman named Priscilla, do their best to avoid Adam and to keep Lilly’s child, Madeline, safe. Augusta, meanwhile, takes care of her nephew, two-year-old Thomas. She also does her best to avoid embarrassing herself in front of Henry MacMillan, a Northerner who helped build the boat, which had been financed by her brother.

It becomes clear that Lilly plans to run away with her daughter and nursemaid when the ship docks, having secreted away valuable jewelry. Augusta feels that she will never be seen as anything but an aunt and widow, knowing that she would not be a good match for Henry because he does not believe in slavery, and the Longstreets make their money through the institution. The journey starts calmly, but the ship soon sinks at sea.

Back in the present, Everly meets Maddox Wagner, a deep-sea diver who specializes in finding and exploring shipwrecks. He has suffered a traumatic loss similar to Everly’s loss of her friend Mora. The two bond over their unspoken grief. Everly meets Maddox for dinner one evening to go over how he discovered the Pulaski and what he thinks he may find in the wreckage. Before dinner, Everly saw Oliver on a date with an unknown woman, which upsets Everly because it is so soon after Mora’s death. She died when a car plowed through a crowd at a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Everly believes she is responsible because she bumped her hip against Oliver, causing Mora to move into the car’s path. The man driving the car was never found.

In 1838, Lilly and Augusta survive the wreck but are stranded separately at sea. Lilly is on a life raft while Augusta is on broken pieces of the Pulaski. Augusta is reunited with her brother Lamar and his 14-year-old son, Charles. Thomas dies of exposure and dehydration. Henry is discovered barely alive and is dragged onto the remnants of the ship. Augusta and Henry admit they have feelings for each other and vow to build a life together if they survive. Eventually, Augusta, Henry, Lamar, and Charles are saved by another boat. Lilly, her daughter Madeline, and the nursemaid, Priscilla, make it to land after a harrowing passage through breakers and violent waves. Families across the North Carolina coast take in the Pulaski survivors. When Lilly and Priscilla find out that Adam also survived the wreck, they know they must take Madeline and run before he can find them.

Now safely on shore, Augusta, Charles, and Lamar discover Henry is nowhere to be found. Augusta tries not to grieve what might have been. The family returns to Savannah and finds the city mourning the disaster. Henry eventually returns to Savannah, just in time for Adam to erect the statue of Lilly in honor of the survivors and victims of the Pulaski. Henry explains to Augusta that he had suffered from an infection, from which it took a long time to recover. In addition, he traveled by land, choosing to avoid the sea entirely.

In the present, Everly goes to North Carolina to meet with Maddox and his crew. Maddox offers her guidance concerning both the wreck and her grief. She sees many of the artifacts that will be on display as part of the museum exhibit. Returning to Savannah, Everly continues making discoveries about the people on board the ship. She goes to Mora’s grave and sees a beautiful bouquet of flowers. She asks Oliver about it, but he says he didn’t leave them.

Oliver asks Everly about an oil painting depicting the Pulaski, and Everly realizes she doesn’t know where it came from. Upon asking her mother, Harriet, Everly learns that the painting was given to them by Mora’s grandmother. Oliver and Everly visit Mora’s mother and grandmother to discuss the painting and what connection their family had to the Pulaski. Mora’s mother is unwilling to talk. But her grandmother, Josephine, gives them a clue that leads them to discover that Mora was descended from Lilly and Augusta’s family.

Eventually, Everly and Oliver dive with Maddox. On the dive, Everly gets nitrogen narcosis when the gasses in her scuba equipment become out of balance. She hallucinates seeing Mora and the ghosts of the Pulaski disaster. She realizes that she can be loved if she will choose to live and not simply survive. Oliver and Maddox drag her to the surface. Later, they identify a family crest on many of the artifacts recovered from the wreck.

Back home in Savannah, Everly returns to the cemetery to visit the graves of Mora, Papa, and her father. Everly sees Mora’s grandfather’s gravestone, which has the same family crest carved on it. She and Oliver connect it to Mora’s ancestors, the Longstreets. They then find a treasure trove of long-forgotten records hidden in an attic, which end up unlocking the mystery of what happened to Lilly Forsyth after she disappeared and the fate of Augusta and the rest of the Longstreet family.

One record is a memoir written by Augusta detailing what happened during the disaster and after. Lamar remarried within a year. His son Charles felt overlooked and unsupported. He eventually became known as the Red Devil, the last man to die in the Civil War and to traffic enslaved people directly from Africa.

Augusta married Henry and had children. The family moved to New York for a few years before retiring to Savannah. Lilly wrote letters to Augusta, telling her how she and Priscilla, now known as Chike (her original name), went west to Michigan. Lilly became a teacher and remarried. Priscilla became a seamstress, living with Lilly and helping her to raise Madeline.

In the present, Everly finishes her work on the exhibit, deciding to make it as interactive as possible so visitors can see the choices they would need to make during a tragedy. Everly visits Mora’s grave again and sees a man with a bouquet. He approaches her and admits not only that he is the one who has been leaving flowers but also that he is the man who ran over Mora. He tells her he has found God and is sober. Everly responds that that’s not enough. He runs away. Everly goes to the police and gives them information about the man. The police find and arrest him for manslaughter. Oliver and Everly find a sense of peace and relief.

The exhibit opens. Everly gives an inspirational speech about choice, life, and survival. She relates her connections to the Pulaski and explains Mora’s ties to Lilly, Augusta, and Charles. She notes that one must acknowledge both the good and bad parts of history, if not to make up for the tragedies of the past then to accept and heal from them. Oliver tells Everly he is in love with her and believes that they should be together because of Mora, not despite her. Everly agrees. Surviving Savannah ends with Oliver asking Everly what happens next.