This Rock: A Novel - Softcover

Morgan, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743225791 ISBN 13: 9780743225793

Publisher: Atria Books, 2002

Synopsis

Jessica Ronky Haddad Style Weekly Transports readers directly to the wild and forgotten mountains of North Carolina and to the secret, hopeful places in a young manıs heart. From the author of Gap Creek the international bestseller and winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for fiction comes the gripping story of two brothers struggling against each other and the confines of their 1920s Appalachian Mountain world. Muir and Moody Powell are as different as Jacob and Esau. Muir is an innocent, shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea of what to do about them. Moody, the older, wilder brother, takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother. Through it all, their mother, Ginny, tries to steer them right, while dealing with her own losses: her husband, her youth, and the fiery sense of God that had once ordered her world. When Muir discovers his purpose in life, the consequences are far-reaching and irrevocable: a community threatens to tear itself apart and his family is forever changed. This Rock is the most ambitious and accomplished novel yet from an author whose sentences ³at their finest . . . burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank Williamsıs best songs² (The New York Times Book Review). ³Homespun pleasure.² Nelson Taylor, Providence Journal ³Hell-bent and excellent . . . I canıt shake the first scene. . . . resonant . . . moving.² Katherine Whittemore, The New York Times Book Review ³Morganıs prose is sharp and saturated with details . . . [imbued] . . . with a sort of lyrical sheen . . . both moving and spiritual.² Michael Paulson, Bookpage Robert Morgan, the author of the award-winning novel Gap Creek, is a native of the North Carolina mountains, where he was raised on land settled by his Welsh ancestors.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

From the author of Gap Creek - an international bestseller and winner of the Southern Book Award for fiction - comes the gripping story of two brothers struggling against each other and the confines of their 1920s Appalachian Mountain world.

The Powell brothers, Muir and Moody, are as different as Cain and Abel. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea of what to do about them. Moody, the older and wilder brother - embittered by the death of his father, by years of fighting his mother, and by his jealousy of Muir's privileged place in the family - takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother. Muir escapes, hoping to find something - an occupation, a calling - to match his ambition.

Through it all their mother, Ginny tries to steer them right, all the while remembering her own losses: her husband, her youth, and the fiery sense of God that once ordered her world.

When Muir discovers his purpose in life, the consequences are far - reaching and irrevocable: a community threatens to tear itself apart, and his family is forever changed.

All that's left in the aftermath are the memories of a new, wiser man. This Rock is Robert Morgan's most ambitious and accomplished novel yet.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Robert Morgan:

"At their finest, his stripped - down and almost primitive sentences burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank William's best song." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Reminiscent of James Dickey - bearing the same naturalistic marks of clear, clean prose and often disturbing imageryT Morgan casts a stark story peopled with real, believable, and honest characters." (Baltimore Sun)

"Morgan turns the stories of prosaic lives into page - turners." (The News and Observer)

"Morgan writes "with an authority usually associated with the great novelists of the last century." (The Boston Book Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743225791
• ISBN 13: 9780743225793
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336