It’s 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi.
Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke is an outcast in Blowing Rock. Poor and uneducated, she works as a seasonal maid. When Naomi eloped with Jacob, the marriage scandalized his wealthy parents, who disinherited him. Shunned by townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer and closer until a shattering development derails many lives.
Award-winning author Ron Rash has been called “One of the great American authors at work today” by The New York Times. Find out why with this searing examination of male friendship, rivalry, and familial devotion. This is a hardback book.
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