by Rick Bragg
First published 2021
Rick Bragg crafts a collection of interconnected stories set in his native Alabama. The characters navigate small town life where family obligations clash with personal dreams. A young woman tends to her aging mother while watching opportunities slip away. A man returns home after years in the city to find his childhood friends trapped by circumstances and choices. Neighbors gossip over back fences about who left and who stayed behind. The stories move between past and present as characters reckon with the weight of place and blood ties. Bragg captures the pull of home ground and the cost of staying or leaving. Each tale reveals how geography shapes identity and how family history follows people no matter how far they travel. The book explores the tension between loyalty and escape in communities where everyone knows your business and your people going back three generations.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Alabama
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
417 pages · Library Binding · Thorndike Press Large Print