by Ron Rash
First published 2006
Travis Shelton wanders onto his neighbor's wooded property one summer day when he's seventeen. He finds a marijuana crop big enough to make him rich, then steps into a bear trap. Hours later, Carlton Toomey discovers him. Carlton is the farmer who set the trap to guard his plants. He's wise and vicious in equal measure. Travis moves out of his parents' house to live with Leonard Shuler, a former schoolteacher who lost his job and his daughter when a student framed him. Leonard now lives in a trailer with his dogs and occasional girlfriend, deals some drugs, and reads Civil War journals. He becomes Travis's teacher. The two outsiders find their lives tangled together as their Appalachian community's brutal past and crooked present close in on them. A Civil War massacre still divides the town after more than a century. Travis and Leonard face a violent confrontation with Carlton and the weight of history itself. The story explores the tension between staying home and breaking free.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, crime, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, teacher-student
Setting: Appalachia
Period: 20th-century
289 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co.
Content warnings: drug-use, violence