Story Description:
HarperCollins Publishers|April 9, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN:
978-0-06-208814-7
A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of
John Hart and Tom Franklin. A Land More Kind Than Home is a
mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil
they face in a small western North Carolina town.
For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in
Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is
enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone
calls Stump. Though their mother has
warned them not to snoop, Stump can’t help sneaking a look at something he’s
not supposed to see, an act that will have catastrophic repercussions,
shattering both his world and Jess’s. It
is a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he’s not
prepared. While there is much about the
world that still confuses him, he knows what a new understanding can bring not
only a growing danger and evil but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance
as well.
Told by three resonant and evocative characters: Jess;
Adelaide Lyle, the town midwife and moral conscience; and Clem Barfield, a
sheriff with his own painful past. A Land More Kind Than Home is a haunting
tale of courage in the face of cruelty and the power of love to overcome the
darkness that lives in us all. These are
masterful portrayals written with assurance and truth, and they show us the
extraordinary promise of this remarkable first novel.
My Review:
Brothers Jess and Christopher are as close as any two
siblings can be. Christopher is the oldest
but is a deaf mute whom everyone has nicknamed Stump. Always in trouble for spying on adults,
Christopher once again does some spying and sees something that was not meant
for eyes of his age throwing him into confusion full of turmoil and angst.
The town minister, Pastor Chambliss believes in
preaching with rattlesnakes and having the congregation prove their love, faith
and trust in God by handling these snakes without fear of being bitten until
one day just that happens. However, he
manages to convince his congregants that the Lord just happened to call one Miss
Molly Jameson home to glory that very day.
It was during one of Pastor Chambliss’s services that he convinced
Christopher’s mother that he could provide a ‘healing’ for his lack of speech
that something terrible happened, leading to the heart-pounding conclusion to
the story along with what Jess and Christopher saw that last day they were
spying on their Momma and Daddy.
The town midwife, the lovely old Miss Adelaide had
long taken the children out of the church and was holding Sunday services at
her home for them as she didn’t trust Chambliss and all his goings-on at the
church.
The author did an excellent job at conveying to the
reader the emotions that people show when they’re riled up and in the spirit of
the moment and how things can be over-looked when caught up in the emotion
packed moment of loud music, hand clapping and rattlesnakes. A family is shattered, a town has hung its
head in shame, and a lot of healing needs to take place in this small town of
Marshall, North Carolina.
For a debut novel, Wiley Cash has written a book that
grabs you, pulls you and doesn’t release its grip until the very unexpected
end. I’ll be looking for more of this
authors work and recommending this novel to my friends.
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