First published 1976
M. C. Higgins sits atop his forty-foot pole, surveying the Ohio hills that have sheltered his family for generations. Below him, the mountain slopes away toward home. Above him, a growing pile of mining waste inches closer each day, threatening to bury everything he knows. The fifteen-year-old faces an impossible choice. He could help his family escape to safety, leaving behind the land that defines them. Or he could stand and fight for their mountain home, risking everything in a battle against forces much larger than himself. The slag heap advances steadily, carrying with it the promise of destruction. M. C. must decide what matters most: the security that comes from running away or the deeper pull of roots that run generations deep into Ohio soil.
Genres: fiction, family-life, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Ohio
Period: 20th-Century
400 pages · Hardcover · G. K. Hall