"Molly Patterson is a writer of the first order, and her debut novel is a revelatory, immersive miracle. Ambitious in scope and exacting in its language, Rebellion becomes a grand exploration of fate and circumstance."—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus Reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout and Jane Smiley, Rebellion is a powerful debut novel by Molly Patterson, weaving together the stories of four women unafraid to challenge the boundaries of their lives, spanning generations and taking readers across the globe. In 1890, a young missionary, Addie, has traveled to the town of Lu-cho Fu with her husband, dreaming of making her mark on the world. But Addie’s desires change after meeting a brash and thoroughly modern woman, Poppy, who offers to transform Addie’s destiny. All the while, letters from Addie reach her sister Louisa back home, recently married and struggling with the quiet isolation of being a farmer’s wife. When violence erupts overseas between the Chinese and their unwelcome Christian intruders, Addie’s life takes a mysterious and haunting turn strongly felt by her sister, Louisa, back home. By 1958, Louisa’s daughter Hazel is fighting to maintain control of her land and family in the aftermath of her husband’s untimely death. Reeling from the tragedy, she finds herself drawing closer to the neighboring Hughes family and in the process learns that grief takes on many forms. One hundred years after Addie’s disappearance, Juanlan returns to her hometown with no job and no options. She finds her father ailing and her pregnant sister-in-law restless and angry. While her family and town are rapidly changing, Juanlan feels frozen in place. In search of an outlet for the live wire she feels buried inside, she starts up a love affair with a married man. Interconnected by action and consequence, each woman’s tale brilliantly displays the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligation of family, and the dramatic consequence of charting your own destiny. A vibrant story of compassion and discovery set against a century of complicated relations between China and America, Rebellion celebrates those who fight against expectation in pursuit of their own thrilling fate, and introduces a rising literary star.

Thrombolites are non-laminated, clotted microbialites that form by the lithification of microbial communities through the trapping and binding of sediment and mineral precipitation. This precipitation (microbially-induced organomineralization) is controlled by both intrinsic (microbial; e.g. microbial metabolisms) and extrinsic (environmental; e.g. temperature) factors, which dictate the carbonate saturation index and ultimately the precipitation of carbonate minerals within the microbialite structure (i.e. EPS matrix). Thrombolites date back in the rock record to the early Paleoproterozoic (ca. 1.9 Ga) and are currently forming around the world in various climates and under a range of environmental conditions. This study compares two markedly different modern thrombolite environments: a hard water, meromictic lake (Green Lake, New York) and an open marine, intertidal environment (Highborne Cay, Bahamas). In this study we use geochemical and physical data to characterize these extant thrombolite-forming environments, analyze the fabric of the thrombolitic structure, and study some of the processes of microbe-mineral interactions that lead to the formation of a microbialite. To understand the extrinsic factors affecting microbialite growth, data such as chemical composition of the water, temperature, salinity, light, and sediment supply are important and were collected seasonally. Microbialite samples were analyzed using petrographic thin section, dissection, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to provide a context for mineral formation and thrombolite fabric. Between Green Lake and Highborne Cay, differences in exposure, temperature, water composition, and sediment supply impact the degree and location of precipitation within the surface microbial mat and the resulting thrombolitic fabric. The emerging geomicrobiological model for thrombolite formation in Green Lake shows mat thickness and precipitation as a factor of seasonality (i.e. temperature, sediment supply, light). In contrast, the model for Highborne Cay, Bahamas shows that the growth of and precipitation within the microbialite is relatively continuous and dependent on sediment supply. This research provides insight into the role the macroenvironment and microorganisms play in mineral precipitation, lithification, and overall formation of the thrombolite structures. Additional research may help providing a link to the fossil record, using the knowledge of these structures and their formation to understand microbialite formation in ancient environments.