The Time To Run

Abe Siler's mother, Maude, is a religious fanatic who will stop at nothing—including breaking up her son's marriage and separating their six children—to save him, body and soul, from the devil's pit of an underground coal mine. The near collapse of Kentucky's underground coal-mining industry in the 1950s parallels the near collapse of Abe's family when he, a miner since childhood and now a celebrated foreman, is pressured into deserting his sinking ship in favor of a safer, cleaner life as a tobacco farmer. Lily, Abe's wife, struggles to keep love alive and the family together under the stress of Abe's failure as a farmer, his inability to find work, and the dark family secrets that breed distrust and even betrayal. This gripping novel reveals the human spirit at its best...and worst.

Faye Solomon Kushner is a native of Appalachia and the daughter of an underground coal miner. She is a Fulbright Scholar and an Associate Professor of English. For years she was a member of the River City Writers, a group led by Chuck Adams, Executive Director of Algonquin Books in Chapel Hill, NC.