Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Literary FictionNamed a Best Book of 2017 by the Chicago Public Library and the American Library Association“Wiley Cash reveals the dignity and humanity of people asking for a fair shot in an unfair world.”- Christina Baker Kline, author of A Piece of the World and Orphan TrainThe New York Times bestselling author of the celebrated A Land More Kind Than Home … World and Orphan Train
The New York Times bestselling author of the celebrated A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy returns with this eagerly awaited new novel, set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events. The chronicle of an ordinary woman’s struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, The Last Ballad is a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice, with the emotional power of Ron Rash’s Serena, Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day, and the unforgettable films Norma Rae and Silkwood.
Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.
When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movement—a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her town—indeed all that she loves.
Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the tragedy that befell Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.
Intertwining myriad voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the now forgotten struggle of the labor movement in early twentieth-century America—and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent novel confirms Wiley Cash’s place among our nation’s finest writers.
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Whew. What can I say? I love all of Cash’s books and this one is no exception.
I struggled a little with this rating because I struggled a little with the book. In the first chapter or two, we learn that Ella May, the central character, is murdered. I already liked her and I didn’t want to read about her death. But every time I picked up the book, I lost all track of time and inhaled this story. I have a lot more to say, but let me end with this for now: Ella May is a member of my tribe. She’s from the Appalachians, she’s working in a factory, getting by the best way she knows how. I always say that Ivy Rowe from Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith feels like a member of my family; I’m adding Ella May to the list. I don’t have higher praise than that.
Even though this book is a novel the main person Ella Mae Wiggins is a real person This novel is based on her life in the textile mill of NC in 1929. Well written and was unable to put the book down until it was finished. Highly recommend this book.
North Carolina author Wiley Cash provides a gripping novel based on a true story. Set mainly in the Western North Carolina Mountains, Cash weaves history into a poignant story of the ruination of the landscape by mining, the politics of early 201th century US Labor Unions, discrimination – and what ‘one voice’ can do to make a difference, even in the face of life and death circumstances.
Excellent book about real people and events that were a historic part of American labor history. This is an important book, reminding us that our country has been built on the backs of the poor. From slavery to coal mining to mill work, the labor of the poor is a part of our history we either ignore, gloss over, or romanticize. Wiley Cash brings to life what it was like to work 70* hours a week for $9.00 and to lose children to starvation and the diseases of the poor. Sounds depressing, I know, but life in the mills was depressing and de-humanizing. Through a diverse group of characters, and the intersections of their lives, Cash tells the story of one woman’s heroism amidst the violence and desperation of the famous Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, North Carolina.
This book is gripping in that it tells the true story of Ella May Wiggins, who fought to unionize textile mills in NC in the 20’s. Mill workers had an incredibly difficult life, and a few brave souls worked hard to improve their working conditions. Although this is a novel, it is based in fact and is a piece of our country’ History that everyone should know.
i am presently reading ” The Last Ballad “. My eldest son, a high school principle, gave it to me after he read the book. We actually have different taste in reading material but from time to time we both like the same content which we did on this book which sucks you in from the beginning . The setting is in the early American twentieth century.The world was a different place and time unions were fighting to be born….both men and women of difference race fought along side each other to gain what they needed.
No matter what your political views are on unions, the book is a great historical fiction read.
I very much enjoyed this book. The locations in the book are from around here where I live. The characters seemed very real.
Based on the few known facts about a woman who worked in the cotton mills of North Carolina in the 1920’s and was involved in the early attempts to unionize. An unbelievably hard life that many lived during that time. Very interesting characters. Great historical novel.
Ella May Wiggins was the stuff of legends — married young, raised children on her own when her husband ran off and worked the cotton mills of North Carolina earning only enough wages to live in poverty among African American mill workers. Tired of the life bestowed upon her without possibility to rise above, she joined the union movement, gaining popularity for her ballads of equality. She worked 12-hour days and fought to have the union admit African Americans as well as white. Her best-known ballad, “A Mill Mother’s Lament,” was recorded by Pete Seeger and others.
Wiley Cash, who received his PhD from UL-Lafayette, brings this remarkable but unassuming woman to light in his latest novel sure to win acclaim, “The Last Ballad.” He follows Ella May through her travails, the horrific work conditions in American Mill No. 2 of Bessemer City and the racial disparity existing within the South in 1929. We also peek into the lives of her African American friends, the union leaders, a shop keeper who bought whiskey from her no-good husband and members of mill society, including mill owners with better working conditions than Ella’s own.
Some of the characters we assume are real figures in history, brushed uniquely with the author’s pen. Others, complete fabrications. And the story itself is a fictionalized account of Ella May’s desire for a better world for herself and her children, the rise and fall of the union movement in this segment of North Carolina and Ella May’s ultimate murder that occurs a few months later. (Her murder is not a spoiler; you learn this early on.)
Like his previous award-winning and best-selling novels — “A Land More Kind Than Home” is one of my all-time favorites, a stunning piece of literature — “The Last Ballad” resonates with pain, love, the struggle of life and the gross injustices of the world. I hated leaving Ella May’s world, reveled in watching her bravery against unspeakable odds and her unending support of racial equality. Along the way, Cash provided a riveting story in the details surrounding her life.
I can’t commend Cash enough, nor stop recommending his novels. He’s a unique Southern voice breathing fresh life into a long-standing literary tradition. As Ben Foundation, author of “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” wrote: “I can think of no more relevant novel for our times than ‘The Last Ballad.’” I’d add, I can’t think of no more relevant novelist for our times.
I liked the characters.
I liked the history.
I liked the writing.
Looking froward to reading more books by Wiley Cash.
Great story to remind us why there was once such a need for Labour Unions. I will be reading more of this author’s books.
This book unearths and expands on a little known true history of the tragic but heroic Ella Wiggins and the Gastonia NC textile strike. I loved every minute of it, esp. details that had not been in the historical accounts I’d read. Thought provoking and a page turner.
This story of textile workers North Carolina. It’s a sad indictment of a society that refused to consider the value of poor, working class whites, and actively stifled the rights of its black citizens. It offers no “happily ever after” ending, because there was no happy ending to the plight of these people.
Historical fiction about an early trailblazer in the union movement. I thought about this character for a long time after reading the book. Well done.
Wiley tells a good story well, with e free history lesson.
This was the fourth book I have read by Mr. Cash. I rated the other three 4 stars but this one topped the charts. His writing style is sparse but there is no need for superfluous “fillers'”. I look forward to his next book.
Was not familiar with the history of strikes, enjoyed it
This book was hard to get into in the beginning. I almost gave up on it but decided that I would plow through it. i am glad I did. After about a quarter of the way through, it all started to pull together and it did have a happy ending.