The Pie Man

A novel of romance and devotion, corporate intrigue, heroism and heartbreak, in a small town in the coalfields of West Virginia.

Amid the lush beauty and rugged landscape of McDowell County, West Virginia, a woman struggles to save her marriage, support a family and raise a son with Down Syndrome. When she's suddenly thrust into a battle to save her grandparents' farm from the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining, Natty Oakes finds herself alone against friends and family, as well as one of the world's largest utility companies and its powerful Charleston law firm.

When Charlie Burden, a wealthy, successful engineer from New York, reluctantly arrives in Red Bone, West Virginia to take over the construction of a coal-fired power plant, Natty finds an unlikely ally and a friend . . . and maybe much more. And in West Virginia, Charlie begins to find the answers to his mid-life quandaries about his marriage, career and the relentless pursuit of wealth that have been suffocating him in New York. Everything begins to change for Charlie when he meets Natty Oakes and her son, the Pie Man.

The odds of beating the coal company are about the same as for Natty's undermanned, soccer team The Bones, to reach the season-ending tournament in Charleston. But led by Emma Lowe, the best under-14 soccer player in the country, playing on a boys team, The Bones fashion an incredible, improbable and thrilling season . . . a season ending in selfless heroism, personal bonding, and heartbreaking tragedy that, like so many coal mining disasters, would go largely unnoticed outside of West Virginia, but would permanently alter the lives of everyone in this small Appalachian town.

GERRY FITZGERALD has owned his own advertising agency for the last 25 years in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is a Viet Nam veteran and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism/ Northwestern University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He lives in East Longmeadow, MA with his wife Robin and children Thomas and Joanna. The Pie Man is his first novel.