by John Mauldin
First published 2022
Jake MacCorkle drifts through postwar life in emotional numbness, moving between his father's house and VA appointments. Strange dreams of ancient times break his routine. When he mentions these visions at breakfast, his father's reaction shocks him. "We need to talk," his father says, then dies in a bizarre car crash before explaining anything. Jake inherits thousands of acres in North Georgia's mountains, bound by three absolute conditions: never cut trees, build roads, or sell the property. His father's final letter requests one favor: spread his ashes on the land and "experience it for yourself." The trek should be simple work for an Army Ranger, but the mountain has other plans. Trails vanish and reappear. Vines reach for him like living things. He takes shelter in a small cave and wakes to find it opens into an impossible world. A clan of faeries waits for him there, and they seem to know who he is. Jake becomes entangled in their lives and discovers that magic can heal what war broke inside him.
Genres: fiction, adventure, fantasy, magical-realism
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Georgia, North Georgia
Period: Postwar
236 pages · Paperback · Dr. John Mauldin