Small towns are often remembered for close communities, familiar faces and traditions passed from one generation to the next. Yet they can also be places where judgment spreads quickly and social expectations are difficult to escape. In August: We Carry What We Bury, author Ian Hanes explores both sides of small-town America through the tender but tragic relationship between August Harper and Rose Carter.
Set partly in 1970s Lebanon, Kansas, the novel introduces August as a talented young basketball player whose success brings pride to the entire town. He is admired by classmates, neighbours and local sports fans. His future appears full of opportunity, especially as his team moves closer to a championship and college scouts begin to notice his ability.
Rose experiences the same town very differently.
She is the only Black girl in her classroom and she is constantly aware of how others see her. Although she is intelligent, outspoken and determined to become a civil rights lawyer, the prejudice surrounding her affects where she sits, how she behaves and how freely she can form relationships. The town may celebrate August, but it does not offer Rose the same sense of belonging.
Their love develops quietly. They exchange glances during school, meet after basketball practice, hold hands when no one else is around and imagine futures beyond the narrow expectations placed upon them. These moments are simple, but they carry enormous emotional weight because their relationship cannot safely exist in public.
Ian Hanes uses their story to show how racism often operates through everyday behaviour. It appears in gossip, exclusion, cruel remarks, suspicious looks and the assumption that Rose should remain invisible. She does not face prejudice only through dramatic confrontations. She also experiences it through the constant pressure to know her “place.”
That pressure shapes the romance. August and Rose are not separated by a lack of affection. They are separated by a community that would treat their relationship as a scandal. Even August’s popularity cannot remove the danger Rose faces as a young Black woman loving a white boy in rural Kansas.
The basketball storyline creates a powerful contrast. On the court, August becomes a symbol of hope and unity. The town gathers behind him, celebrates his talent and treats his success as a shared achievement. Yet outside the gym, the same community remains divided by race and social judgment.
This contradiction reaches its most heartbreaking point on the night of the championship. Rose rushes to the arena to support August, but she is killed before she arrives. While the crowd celebrates the team’s victory, August begins to understand that the person he hoped to see in the stands is gone.
Her death reveals another painful aspect of inequality. Rose is initially treated as a minor detail in someone else’s story. Her grave remains unmarked and her ambitions, personality and relationship with August are nearly erased by silence.
However, the novel refuses to let her disappear.
By allowing Rose to narrate much of the story, Ian Hanes gives her the voice that her community tried to suppress. Readers come to know her humour, intelligence, anger, dreams and love. She is not simply a tragic figure. She is the emotional centre of the book.
August: We Carry What We Bury presents small-town America with honesty and compassion. It acknowledges community pride and loyalty while exposing the prejudice hidden beneath them. Through August and Rose, the novel shows how racism can steal futures, silence love and shape a person’s entire life. It also reminds readers that remembering those who were overlooked can become a powerful act of dignity and justice.
