Corruption, infatuation, and conflicting loyalties collide in a rural Southern mill town in this debut novel by an award-winning poet and environmentalist.
On a placid Blue Ridge mountain lake on Labor Day Weekend in 1935, three locals in an overloaded boat drown, and the cotton mill scion who owns the lake is indicted for their murders. Decades later Ben Crocker-a reluctant participant in the aftermath of this long-forgotten tragedy-is drawn back into the morally ambiguous world of mill fortunes and foothills justice.
The son of mill workers in Carlton, South Carolina, Crocker works as bookkeeper to the owner, George McCane. And when McCane decides to lay off families connected to the Uprising of '34, Crocker finds himself in the ill-fitting position of enforcer. But days after the evictions, a surprise indictment lands McCane in jail and sinks Crocker even deeper into the escalating tensions.
While traversing mountain communities in McCane's defense, Crocker must also negotiate with labor organizers and fend off his family's skepticism of his social aspirations. Meanwhile, hanging over Crocker's upended life is his infatuation with Novie Moreland-the young widow of a man McCane is accused of killing. Looking back on this crucial period of his life, Crocker knows he must seek out Novie Moreland once more if he is ever to find closure with the past.
Foreword by New York Times best-selling author Wiley Cash