Fiction - Southern

An Instant New York Times bestseller / An Oprah's Book Club Pick In the spirit of The Known World and The Underground Railroad, an award-winning "miraculous debut" (Washington Post) about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose...

AN ETHEREAL TALE OF HUNGRY GHOSTSA psychopathic killer disappears into the mountains and haunts the troubled residents. After the murderous Angel Jones escapes from a prison work crew, he mysteriously vanishes deep into the North Carolina woods forcing newcomers Cal and Joy McAlister to...

"Entirely satisfying, an expert balance of warmth and compassion, terrific supporting characters, a little steamy sex and just enough suspense to keep you from guessing how it will all go down." -- Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionA hilarious novel about one woman's quest to redo an old...

An enthralling novel of secrets, second chances, and confronting the past by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I'm Gone.After a series of devastating losses, Chicago journalist Hannah Williamson has landed in Senatobia, Mississippi, to care for her bedridden grandmother and endure...

Mumford, Texas, the summer of '69. Matt Ruggirello believes he is doomed to enter the farming life, just like everyone else in his family. Josh, his middle brother, wants nothing more than Papa's approval. While little brother Tommy observes all the happenings in and...

For fans of Harper Lee and Rita Mae Brown, Roy Hoffman's new novel is steeped in a sense of place--coastal Alabama--with its rich tapestry of characters caught in a web of justice not for all. Early Praise for The Promise of the Pelican: "Roy...

In a poor West Virginia town decimated by the opioid epidemic, teenagers Henry and Jane have it worse than most. Their father is Hollis Lusher, a convicted serial killer known as "the Blind Spot Slasher."Despite being bullied and ostracized, the siblings maintain their father's...

The New York Times bestselling Beach House series returns with this tender and compassionate novel following the Rutledge family as they face a summer of upheaval and change with perseverance, unity, and a dose of humor, discovering unexpected joys and lessons that will endure...

WINNER of the LEE SMITH NOVEL PRIZE "This sun-and-salt-kissed coming-of-age story reads like a wry, honest chat with a close friend." -Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness Evie Austin, native of Hatteras Island, North Carolina and baddest girl on the planet, has not lived her life...

A woman returns to her small southern hometown in the wake of her mother's sudden death--only to find the past upended by stunning family secrets--in this intimate debut novel, written with deep compassion and sharp wit. "A deeply moving work of Southern fiction that...

An Instant New York Times bestseller / An Oprah's Book Club Pick In the spirit of The Known World and The Underground Railroad, an award-winning "miraculous debut" (Washington Post) about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose...

Pour yourself a strong shot of rivalry, romance, and murder. Travel writer Jill Curtis is in Louisville, Kentucky, on the next stop of her bourbon tour assignment, and is keen to explore the local distilleries with her videographer, Michael Erickson - especially since her...

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson's atmospheric, beautifully written debut transports readers to a time and place where the KKK is still a power, the South is struggling to find...

"Nothing short of a wonder-book."--New York Times Book Review The story collection that hailed the arrival of an essential voice in southern literature--a sharp, rich exploration of what it means to poor, Black, and gay in the United States.A three-year-old boy begins to deliver...

The Woods of Hitchcock by award-winning author Ann W. Jarvie is a thriller about a psychically gifted Chicago copywriter and victim of violence who returns to South Carolina's equestrian country to solve a riddle involving murder, the metaphysical and the secrets of her eccentric...

As three generations of women navigate the uncertain paths of their hearts and futures, one summer promises to bring change--whether they're ready for it or not.At thirty-eight, garden shop owner Jessie McBride thinks her chances for romance are years behind her and, after her...

When Meg shows up at her mother's door, she has no idea how to break the news to her.She's come home from France, pregnant. At just nineteen years old, this wasn't where she saw her life going.Now, trying to hide her growing belly and...

Each of the twelve stories in A twilight Reel chronicles a transformation-loss, self-discovery, renewal-among the inhabitants of the fictional town of Runion, NC. A preacher held at knifepoint in a stranger's cabin, another who absconds with his church's funds and the wife of a...

"The first chapter appeared in different form in The Pikeville review"--Copyright page.Author: Wesley BrowneISBN-10: 1949199282ISBN-13: 9781949199284Publisher: West Virginia University PressLanguage: EnglishPublished: 01/15/2020Pages: 264Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.60lbsSize: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.80dReview Citation(s): Publishers Weekly 01/20/2020Booklist 02/15/2020 pg. 32Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2020

From the author of the acclaimed The Dry Grass of August comes a richly researched yet lyrical Southern-set novel that explores the conflicts of gentrification-a moving story of loss, love, and resilience. In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is...

Forget Arkham and Dogpatch, Yoknapatawpha County and Hooterville, forget what guidebooks might allege, because the weirdest town to be found in the Western Hemisphere is Redgunk, Mississippi. For over twenty years, author William Eakin has been spinning tales of this a backwater place, where...

The twelve linked stories in McMullen Circle explore the intertwined lives of faculty families at the McMullen Boarding School in Tonola Falls, Georgia in 1969-70. The school community is isolated and idyllic, yet issues of race and the Vietnam War still intrude. Does heroism...

In 2000, as Seth Anderson researches his family history, he discovers an unexpected story and "contained within it lies a larger story that might speak not just to Southern history but beyond it." In the late 1800s in rural Alabama, Melinda Anderson struggles to...

A luminous narrative inspired by the fascinating real case of "the Blue People of Kentucky" that probes questions of identity, love, and family. *A "Best Book of the Month" by The Southern Review of Books* In 1937, there are recesses in Appalachia no outsiders...

Perfect for fans of the NYT bestseller Sold on a Monday, this Southern historical novel based on the true story of a boy's mysterious disappearance examines despair, loyalty, and the nature of truth. In 1913, on a summer's day at Half Moon Lake, Louisiana,...

"Entertaining. . . . If you are up for a big helping of humor and heartbreak, insanity and intrigue, read Irish Eyes." --Orange Country RegisterCallahan Garrity is the owner of House Mouse, a cleaning service that tidies up after Atlanta's elite. She's also a...

"Tasty. . . . [Andrews is] the queen of sass, and revenge is her favorite ingredient." -- Daytona Beach News-JournalBattling TV chefs find themselves competing for a coveted weekly time slot on national television in Mary Kay Andrews's delightful and hilarious New York Times...

In this nationally bestselling novel, A Parchment of Leaves, Silas House produced an iconic story of 1900s rural mountain Kentucky that remains a favorite of many of his fans. On his way to find work in the Redbud Camp, Saul Sullivan encounters a Cherokee...

When it was first published in 1944, this novel sparked immediate controversy and became a huge bestseller. It captured with devastating accuracy the deep-seated racial conflicts of a tightly knit southern town. The book is as engrossing and incendiary now as the day it...

It is 1785 and enforcers of the Spanish Inquisition are still hunting down and torturing conversos-Jews who outwardly converted to Christianity, but who practiced their Judaism in secret. When nineteen-year-old converso Anica Amselem refuses a cut of pork in Valencia's marketplace, she and her...

Hailed by ZZ Packer as "a master of tone, detail, and imagery," Andrew Siegris's debut collection, We Imagined It Was Rain, is a love song to Tennessee. These loosely connected stories are imbued with tenderness, seriousness, and a deep understanding of the human spirit....

Melissa Ginsburg's The House Uptown is an emotional coming-of-age novel about a young girl who goes to live with her eccentric grandmother in New Orleans after the death of her mother. Ava, fourteen years old and totally on her own, has still not fully...

Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You is rich with the music of the Southern mountains and the stories of their people. Jess Kirkman's grandmother is dying, and Jess remembers the tales she and his mother have passed down to him--a chorus of women's voices...

Take a bribe, meet your maker.Imagine if someone recorded politicians accepting bribes. Or, an execution squad murdered corrupt legislators on camera, then broadcast politicians' wrongdoings. What if politicians actually feared retribution for accepting payola? Consider the seismic reverberations which would occur within the DC...

From rural Virginia to coastal Carolina Sometimes the biggest risk is in playing it safe... Lilliane Moore leaves the forests and rolling hills of her rural Virginia hometown, Cub Creek, to accept a temporary job as a companion to an elderly man who lives...

"A riotous journey into the heart of insanity also known as the State of Florida. Bravo!"--Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success Florida, circa 1980. Reed Crowe, the eponymous Florida Man, is a middle-aged beach bum, beleaguered and disenfranchised, living on ill-gotten gains deep in...

Vivid, harrowing yet ultimately hopeful, The World Made Straight is Ron Rash's subtlest exploration yet of the painful conflict between the bonds of home and the desire for independence.NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING NOAH WYLE, JEREMY IRVINE, MINKA KELLY, ADELAIDE CLEMENS, STEVE EARLE,...

A legendary family treasure is rumored to be buried on the Ballard Farm, and generations have searched for it while pretending as if they don't believe in it. Robin goes looking for it, and instead discovers that she's a songwriter, leading to the creation...

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation meets Sweet Home Alabama when Christmas goes south in this redneck romantic comedy.I really want a ring before subjecting Collins to my redneck relatives. So I'm relieved when he has to work over the holidays.All I want is a low-key...

When Dr. Alala Diakos, a visiting professor of Greek literature, comes to teach at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, it doesn't take long for controversy to follow. With her fervent feminist ideals and revolutionary leanings, she quickly earns the admiration of many -- and...

"This is the hopeful book we all need right now. I loved it "--Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lies That BindSometimes all you need is one person to really see you. Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island--a tiny, remote...

Thirteen-year-old Loyal Raines is supposed to stay close to home on a hot summer day in 1934. When he slips away for a quick swim in the river and finds a dead body, he wishes he'd obeyed his mother. The ripples caused by his...

"The Truth of Who You Are is a beautifully written saga of a young man's coming of age and journey into adulthood, as rich and stark as the Appalachian Mountains of his childhood." -Seattle Book ReviewIt's the late 1920s, in the heart of the...

In this coming-of-age novel, a white, small-town Kentucky teen uncovers dark secrets while investigating her mother's suspicious death in 1972.In 1972, on Mudas Summers's seventeenth birthday, her beloved Mama, Ella, is found hanging from the rafters of their home. Most people in Peckinpaw, Kentucky,...

"Hearty backstories and a beguiling Louisiana setting enhance this compelling thriller." - Kirkus Reviews"[A] strength would be the author's reverence for the regional quirks. H.'s adventures take him through all the recognizable haunts of Cajun country which involve eating etouffee and boudin, drinking Community...

With the same page-turning suspense as The Girl on the Train and The Husband's Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison's No One Knows is a "riveting...skillfully plotted" (Publishers Weekly) thriller that questions if the narrator's husband really has returned from the dead--or...

From New York Times bestselling author Julie Cantrell comes a story of family and the Southern roots that call us home."If Julie Cantrell isn't on your reading list, she should be." --Lisa WingateYears ago, Lovey chose to leave her family and the South far...

An essential collection of classic stories that established Flannery O'Connor's reputation as an American master of fiction--now with a new introduction by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Groff In 1955, with the title story and others in this critical edition, Flannery O'Connor firmly...

The Minorcan Princess tells the story of a family whose ancestors arrived in St. Augustine in 1777 and are working every day to provide seafood to those who cannot produce their own. It describes a culture struggling to survive in today's world. It is...

Sometimes what your life is missing is an eccentric group of older ladies to take you under their wing...When Rae Sutton's mama passes away and leaves her the house where she grew up, Rae can't imagine how the little old place might restore her...