Burning Bright

Few writers know the heart and soul of a region as does Ron Rash. Like William Faulkner’s Mississippi or Ivan Doig’s Montana, Rash’s Appalachia is a dichotomous land of beauty and brutality settled by characters as remarkable and enduring as the mountains and hollows they call home. In this rich collection, the acclaimed author limns this territory in stories breathtaking in voice and power.

In “Corpse Bird,” a man becomes haunted by a childhood folk tale when a mysterious bird makes its home in his neighbor’s tree and their daughter suddenly takes ill. In “Back of Beyond,” a pawn shop owner who profits from the stolen goods of local meth addicts—including his own nephew—comes to his brother’s aid when he’s threatened by his son. The pregnant wife of a Lincoln sympathizer alone in Confederate territory takes revenge to protect her family from a menacing wayward soldier in “Lincolnites.”

Rash masterfully crafts a patchwork of luminous stories, rich in beauty, suspense, and violence, that draw from the mythical, mysterious, and rawness of the people and the landscape of Appalachia.