Reviewed by: Pat Byington
15 books set on the Alabama Gulf Coast you need to add to your reading list
Reading time: 6 minutes
Anyone who lives on the Alabama Gulf Coast isn’t surprised to learn when an artist, musician or writer is inspired by the beauty and unique history of the region.
The Alabama Gulf Coast has inspired plenty of famous names like Fannie Flagg and Winston Groom, but the region’s literary footprint runs a lot deeper than the usual suspects.
These 15 books capture the coast’s small towns, hurricanes and history, from a Fairhope seamstress’s hidden family history to a haunted mansion outside Mobile. Whether you’re packing for a Gulf Shores weekend or just want to read about the place you already call home, here’s where to start.
We’ll include some options to purchase these books from large retailers, but many local bookstores stock these books — and if they don’t, they’re usually willing to order it or point you in the right direction. Support our local businesses!
Books at a glance
1. The Poet of Tolstoy Park
Author: Sonny Brewer
Genre: Historical Fiction / Southern Literature
This is one of the most popular books on this list, but we’d be remiss if we did not include it. This is required reading for Fairhopians!
The novel is based on the true story of Henry Stuart, a 67-year-old widower who was given a year to live and responded by moving to Fairhope in 1925 to build a small round house among the piney woods. Brewer, who owns a bookstore in Fairhope himself, spent nearly 20 years researching the real man’s life before writing it.
2. Like Trees, Walking
Author: Ravi Howard
Genre: Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
The novel is based on the true story of the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, told through the eyes of two brothers at a family-run funeral home who must bury their close friend.
3. Bay Boy
Author: Watt Key
Genre: Memoir / Essays
You may know this popular Alabama author, but this is a memoir that was only published in 2019, so even Gulf Coast book lovers may have missed this one.
This collection of 32 personal essays chronicles Key’s childhood in Point Clear on Mobile Bay, covering Mardi Gras, jubilees, hurricanes and a colorful cast of neighbors, and it’s illustrated by his brother.
4. Letter from Point Clear
Author: Dennis McFarland
Genre: Literary Fiction
Siblings return to their family home in Point Clear when their sister marries a local evangelical preacher, and the resulting family drama is steeped in the landscape of the Eastern Shore.
5. The Dress Shop on King Street
Author: Ashley Clark
Genre: Historical Fiction / Christian Romance
The dual-timeline novel follows a present-day Fairhope, Alabama seamstress and the elderly mentor who taught her to sew, uncovering a hidden family history that stretches back to 1946 Charleston, and part of the historical storyline was inspired by the real Punta Clara Kitchen in Point Clear.
6. The Promise of the Pelican
Author: Roy Hoffman
Genre: Literary Crime Fiction
A retired Mobile defense attorney and Holocaust survivor, now a fixture at the Fairhope Pier, gets pulled into a case involving his daughter and an accused migrant worker. Author Hoffman lives in Fairhope.
7. Alabama Moon
Author: Watt Key
Genre: Middle Grade / YA Survival Fiction
Many folks may have read this one in school or with their local book club, but if you haven’t read it already, it’s a must-read.
A 10-year-old raised off-grid in the Alabama forests must navigate the outside world for the first time after his father’s death. The story was adapted into a 2009 film starring John Goodman.
8. The Book of Beloved
Author: Carolyn Haines
Genre: Ghost Story / Historical Mystery
The first book in Haines’ “Pluto’s Snitch” series follows a WWI widow who inherits an estate outside Mobile that’s haunted by a mysterious family photo album.
Haines is a USA Today bestseller and Alabama Writers Hall of Fame inductee.
9. The Noticer
Author: Andy Andrews
Genre: Inspirational Fiction / Allegory
The book is based on Andrews’ real teenage years spent homeless under the Gulf State Park Pier in Orange Beach and the mysterious old man whose wisdom helped change his outlook.
If you like “The Noticer,” you’ll want to grab a copy of the sequel, “The Noticer Returns,” which is based in Fairhope!
10. The Gulf Shores Murder
Author: Randolph Crew
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Set in 1956 Gulf Shores and Foley, the novel follows a vacationing detective and his young sleuth stepson as they investigate a murder, complete with a hand-drawn period map of the towns.
11. The Florabama Ladies’ Auxiliary & Sewing Circle
Author: Lois Battle
Genre: Southern Women’s Fiction
A group of laid-off lingerie factory workers and a downsized Atlanta socialite rebuild their lives together in the fictional town of Florabama, Alabama, a nod to the real Flora-Bama border.
12. Oleander House
Author: Ally Blue
Genre: Paranormal Horror / M/M Romance
The first book in the Bay City Paranormal Investigations series follows a team investigating a haunted historic house near a fictionalized coastal town that’s widely read as a stand-in for Mobile.
Blue, who passed away in 2022, offers many of her books as free downloads. Visit her website to learn more.
13. Eveningland
Author: Michael Knight
Genre: Literary Short Fiction
This collection of interlinked short stories is set among a Mobile family in the years leading up to a devastating hurricane and touches on the Deepwater Horizon spill. “Eveningland” was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick from this Mobile native.
14. Murder at Harbor Village
Author: G.P. Gardner
Genre: Cozy Mystery
The first book in the Cleo Mack series follows a retired professor who moves to a senior living community in Fairhope and ends up investigating a murder in the pool.
15. The Summer House
Author: Lauren K. Denton
Genre: Southern Women’s Fiction
Set in the barely-fictionalized town of Bon Secour Bay, Alabama, the novel follows a newly divorced woman who takes a job at a retirement village and finds an unexpected community. Denton is a USA Today bestselling author.
