There is a most unusual woman living in Gap Creek. Julie Harmon works hard, "hard as a man" they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her. They need her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. She is just a teenager when her little brother dies in her arms. That same year she marries Hank and moves down into the valley where fire and visions visit themselves on her and where con men and drunks come calling. Julie and Hank discover that the modern world is complex, grinding ever on without pause or concern for their hard work. To survive, they must find out whether love can keep chaos and madness at bay. In this novel, Morgan returns to the vivid world of the Appalachian high country to follow Julie and Hank in their new life on Gap Creek and their efforts to make sense of the world in the last years of the nineteenth century. Scratching out a life for themselves, always at risk of losing it all, Julie and Hank don't know what to fear most - the floods or the flesh-and-blood grifters who insinuate themselves into their new lives.

This book is on its way to TessLouise! Hope you enjoy it-- :)

I received this from a virtual bookbox and am looking forward to reading it. Thanks, Kathryn!

I have decided to BookCross all of my "should read" books that I am not actually interested in reading. So this one is available...unless someone wants to convince me to pile it back on Mt. TBR! :)

Reserved for a trade with books04; will mail the week of 10-24. Thanks for asking! :)

Thanks, tesslouise, for the trade! Looking forward to reading this, and will most likely share it with my book club. :)

I enjoyed the book and then passed it on to a friend who grew up on a farm and she loved the book. The book is now going to the South West Detention Centre to be part of their library (along with a bunch more of my paperbacks).