A Land More Kind Than Home

If you happened to see Maximum Shelf yesterday, you will notice that our lovely Mr. Wiley Cash was featured.  A Land More Kind Than Home comes out in paperback next week, so it will be an excellent opportunity for you to grab some copies for book clubs.

I'm going to include just one question and thoughtful response from the interview, but you should really click here to read the whole thing: 

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this novel for you?

The early drafts of the novel were written while I was in graduate
school in Lafayette, Louisiana, and the later drafts were written and
all of the revision was done while I was teaching at Bethany College in
West Virginia. I wanted this novel to feel thick with the atmosphere of
western North Carolina, but I obviously wasn't anywhere near that place
while I was writing it. But that's probably the place I love more than
any other in this world, and I wrote about the landscape to honor it and
experience it as if I were there. But writing about a place you love
but can't visit whenever you'd like is challenging.

First, I wanted to write an atmospheric novel in which place was just
as important a character as the protagonist and antagonist. But because
I wrote this novel while I was in school and revised it while I was in
my first year of teaching a 4/4 load, I had to take long breaks from it.
Sometimes it was difficult to go back and re-immerse myself in the
place I'd created on the page. But I can tell you that music helped a
lot; western North Carolina musicians like Malcolm Holcombe and Shannon
Whitworth really took me back there, as did the photography of folks
like Rob Amberg and Tim Barnwell. Of course I went back to the mountains
of North Carolina every chance I got. My sister and her family live in
Burnsville, which is right next door to where this novel is set in
Madison County, and I've still got a lot of friends who don't mind me
showing up for a weekend at their homes in Asheville.

Second, it's hard to write about a place you love while staying true
to what it is. You don't want your romantic perception of that place to
cloud the reality of what it is. You also don't want to disappoint or
offend anyone who calls that place home. I love the North Carolina
mountains and I longed for them every second I sat down at my desk to
write about them; I hope people who read this book can feel that.

– Annie 

Following on from yesterday's teaser trailers, here's a look at one of our most beloved books of the season, A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash.  Gail Godwin, author of Evensong, said it best: "This novel has great cumulative power. Before I knew it I was grabbed by the ankle and pulled down into a full-blown Greek tragedy."

Ok, one more to go…then I'll leave you be. But I love book trailers and I am exerting my blog control mwahahah

– Annie

Ok, so I've probably just offended Dickens or Hemingway purists with my post title play on words, but A Land More Kind Than Home is good! Nay…great. I was very impressed with Wiley Cash's ability to lend such genuine voice to several different narrators, and the setting/character descriptions were so provocative, they stayed with me when I was not reading (this distraction made work slightly harder, but oh the trial and tribulations of life).

Enough of my blabbing, why don't you let more impressive people tell you what they think….

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Library Journal's Barbara Hoffert mentioned it in her Pre-Pub Alert:
"Growing up in insular Marshall, NC, bright, inquisitive Jess Hall watches out for his older autistic brother, Stump. But Jess can’t protect Stump when he sees something he shouldn’t, which has shattering implications for both boys, forcing them to grow up very quickly. This town is not as bucolic as it seems, and with Jess, town conscience Adelaide, and troubled sheriff Clem Barefield as our narrators, we learn a lot about the nature of evil. Nice in-house enthusiasm for this first novel, but what really sold me was the comparison to works by John Hart, Ron Rash, and Tom Franklin—an unbeatable trio of darkly thoughtful writers."

“This novel has great cumulative power. Before I knew it I was grabbed by the ankle and pulled down into a full-blown Greek tragedy.”  —Gail Godwin, author of Evensong

“This book will knock your socks off… Cash has a beautifully written hit on his hands.”  —Clyde Edgerton

“Beautiful… The narrative is strong, clean, direct and economical…I think this could be the beginning of a long, fruitful career.”  —Ernest J. Gaines, author of A Lesson Before Dying

“A riveting story! The writing is bold, daring, graceful, and engrossing.”  —Bobbie Ann Mason, author of The Girl in the Blue Beret

“This is one of the most powerful novels I have ever read.”  —Fred Chappell, author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are

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Yes, yes it is just that awesome.

– Annie