A mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small North Carolina town—author Wiley Cash displays a remarkable talent for lyrical, powerfully emotional storytelling. A Land More Kind than Home is a modern masterwork of Southern fiction, reminiscent of the writings of John Hart (Down River), Tom Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Ron Rash ( Letter, Crooked Letter), Ron Rash (Serena), and Pete Dexter (Paris Trout)—one that is likely to be held in the same enduring esteem as such American classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and A Separate Peace. A brilliant evocation of a place, a heart-rending family story, a gripping and suspenseful mystery.
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—an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess’s. It’s 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 now knows that 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 Barefield, 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.
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Great depiction of rural NC. Liked the writing style. Straightforward and not over-embellished. A very satisfying read. Have recommended it to my book club.
This is a wonderful novel told through different points of view to create a multilayered story.
This is to me a FIVE star plus.
Willy Cash is a great story teller!
Excellent read Woley Cash is a talented writer!
Loved this book, the writing, the characters and the thoughtful humanity
I read this book when it was first published. I still think it is his best. It goes to places that are hard to understand, yet somehow the reader can look and hope to understand.
3.5 stars rounded up…A Land More Kind Than Home was hard to put down but left me with mixed feelings. Heartbreaking yet predictable, the end felt to obvious and left me disappointed. A charlatan of a preacher moves into a small town and takes over the local church. Next comes a series of events that are as appalling and sad while not shocking in …
A beautifully written story.
When two boys break their mother’s rule not to spot, they see something through the window of her bedroom that opens their lives. Jess and his older brother, Christopher (nicknamed Stump) see their mother through the window, but she is not with their father.
This is a story of children and a town with a church that …
This powerfully gripping, heartbreaking story features good and evil, greed, betrayal, love and deception, redemption and faith in God. This story takes place on a tobacco farm in the mountains of North Carolina in the mid 1980s and it is told through the eyes of three different narrators. Adelaide Lyle is an 80-year-old woman who runs the …
This is a well written story. The prose isn’t overly flowery but still manages to convey a perfect sense of Appalachia.
“A Land More Kind” is a story about choices but the choices the characters make aren’t easy to second guess. There is very little room for the reader to think they might do something different.
The story is character driven and …
Excellent mystery, beautifully written, this is the book that made me a Wylie Cash fan.
Amazing prose and thoughtful depictions of Appalachian characters.
I love everything Wiley writes!
Beautifully written, may become a classic.
Scary. I know this has happened and fear society will reach that level of control again.
When you are down and out, this book will remind you that you can’t lose if you don’t quit.
A sad but captivating story.
I loved this book! It’s a must read!
A wonderful story of how our lives and what we believe can be turned upside down in an instant.