A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

What should you buy in April 2012 (from www.talesandales.com of course)?  What should be your summer book club pick?  What book is going to be the first Tales Book Club read?
This novel! 

What's it about?  Jess and Stump; Ben and Julie; Chambliss (I wrinkle my nose as I type his name); Adelaide and Clem.  Their lives, their pasts and their now as it takes place in the mountains of Western North Carolina.  Of spying when you should be playing (but boys are boys); of healing when you should be loving (we easily see what we want to); and of the reprecussions of our actions and inactions. 

A story that spans years in a week.  A story that heals without you realizing it.  A story so full of hunger and longing, you want to grab Jess and Stump and Joe Bill and tell them how much they are loved.  A story of beauty - mountains and rivers; snow and thunder; faith and healing.  I walked away sad but not depressed and more filled up with faith (and questions) than I have been for a long time.  This the kind of story that you find yourself talking about the characters as if they are real, that it really happened.  (And you want to know what kind of man Jess will become.)


Published by William Morrow (division of HarperCollins); Available April 2012; Received at Winter Institute 7 (thanks!)
This is Wiley Cash's debut novel.  Check out his website at http://www.wileycash.com/.