From the pre-eminent chronicler of this forgotten territory, stories that range over one hundred years in the troubled, violent emergence of the New South.

In Ron Rash's stories, spanning the entire twentieth century in Appalachia, rural communities struggle with the arrival of a new era.

Three old men stalk the shadow of a giant fish no one else believes is there. A man takes up scuba diving in the town reservoir to fight off a killing depression. A grieving mother leads a surveyor into the woods to name once and for all the county where her son was murdered by thieves.

In the Appalachia of Ron Rash's stories, the collision of the old and new south, of antique and modern, resonate with the depth and power of ancient myths.

"An award-winning Southern novelist (The World Made Straight), short story writer (Casualties) and poet (Raising the Dead), Rash returns to short fiction with 13 snapshots of contemporary Appalachia. There are double-wide trailers, aging cars and lost souls 'resigned to bad times and trouble,' but there's also, in 'Honesty,' a lit professor struggling to get out from under his rich, cynical wife. In the title story, a chemistry teacher prescribed Elavil and shock treatments for a 'chemical imbalance' seeks emotional ballast in the backwoods evangelical religion of his youth. In 'Blackberries in June' a young couple — he a logger, she a waitress — buy a fixer-upper house, spend their free time repairing it and plan to take night classes at the local community college, but family demands and random events conspire to keep them down. In the haunting 'Pemberton's Bride,' the local lumber-mill owner brings home a Boston bride; she quickly adapts to the rough and tumble surroundings, remorselessly dispatching any threat to her position or to her husband's business interests, real or imagined. There are pacing problems throughout, particularly when characters get let off the hook with hurried resolutions. But the setups are imaginative, and Rash gets the feelings right. (May)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Each story is poetic and carefully crafted." Library Journal

"Rash, a poet and novelist...steeped in Appalachia, offers 13 haunting and picturesque stories that illuminate the terms of survival in that often forgotten landscape." Booklist

"No matter the story, Rash grabs you and doesn't let go." Kirkus Reviews

"Rash's stories are expertly told with a poet's eye for language." San Francisco Chronicle

Ron Rash is the author of the novels One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight. as well as three collections of poetry and two of short stories. He teaches at Western Carolina State University.