Words alone simply cannot do this book the justice it fully deserves. All I can say is that I am awestruck, gobsmacked and blown away by the immense brilliance of this one-sitting read.
The location, its personalities and their stories will grind your heart into the dust under a well-worn heel that has walked on every conceivable road from remorse to retribution.
These gut-kicked, emotionally spent townsfolk try to dodge the curve-balls life just keep on throwing at them. They exist in a harsh reality where the truth has fallen into the cracks and rests alongside splinters of what might have been. And their response? To give a performance worthy of an Oscar.
Especially notable is the temerity of thirteen year old Duchess, the chronically dependable and suffering in silence Chief Walker, the stoic patience and nurturing of an old farmer, Hal, and Dolly, as in Parton, without the ‘distinguishing features’ and an unlikely kindred spirit with a soul of pure gold.
The calibre of the writing once again places this author alongside my all time favourites. He totally nailed the ending too, but I would have happily followed the story beyond these pages. It’s a special kind of book with a moral consciousness. Its narration delivers with absolute conviction, not a single is word out of place.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The location, its personalities and their stories will grind your heart into the dust under a well-worn heel that has walked on every conceivable road from remorse to retribution.
These gut-kicked, emotionally spent townsfolk try to dodge the curve-balls life just keep on throwing at them. They exist in a harsh reality where the truth has fallen into the cracks and rests alongside splinters of what might have been. And their response? To give a performance worthy of an Oscar.
Especially notable is the temerity of thirteen year old Duchess, the chronically dependable and suffering in silence Chief Walker, the stoic patience and nurturing of an old farmer, Hal, and Dolly, as in Parton, without the ‘distinguishing features’ and an unlikely kindred spirit with a soul of pure gold.
The calibre of the writing once again places this author alongside my all time favourites. He totally nailed the ending too, but I would have happily followed the story beyond these pages. It’s a special kind of book with a moral consciousness. Its narration delivers with absolute conviction, not a single is word out of place.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.