by Ron Rash
First published 2013
A Civil War deserter hides in mountain caves while Union soldiers hunt him through the hollows. A trusted prisoner at a work camp makes a choice that will define his remaining years. A woman tends to her dying husband while memories of their shared violence surface like creek water after rain. Ron Rash places his characters in the landscapes of Appalachia, where the past never fully releases its grip on the present. These fourteen stories move across time from the 1860s to modern day, following people caught between brutality and compassion. A mother protects her children from a father's rage. Neighbors settle old scores that stretch back generations. Each story reveals how violence and tenderness interweave in lives shaped by isolation and hardship. The mountains themselves become characters, holding secrets in their ridges and valleys. Rash strips away sentiment to show his people as they are, neither noble nor damned but human in their struggles against forces larger than themselves.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, gritty, regional
Setting: Appalachia, Union
Period: 1860s, Modern Day
239 pages · Hardcover · Ecco
Content warnings: violence