With a Hammer for My Heart: A Novel

Lawanda might have dropped from the sky. Garland, in his garden, is that astounded to see her knocking at the door of the school bus that is his home. The girl's mission on Cade's Hill is just to sell magazines to earn money for college, but when she and Garland meet, it is the sky itself that falls. Many voices bear witness. Fatefully, Lawanda declares her fascination with the book-filled bus-and mind-of the odd old man. Garland boasts of a life blown apart by war and a family seared by the alchemy of booze and guilt. Mamaw, Lawanda' grandmother who saw God in Little Splinter Creek church, praises the teacher Garland was before World War II. Nancy Catherine, his estranged daughter, is still railing at the monster he was when he came back. Other folk are fearful and misguided: the town jailer, who arrests Garland on a minor drunk charge and keeps him locked up under suspicion of a more sinister crime, and Lawanda's father, who can't believe that Garland's growing affection for his daughter could ever be innocent. As heirs of public violence turned private ruin, these voices from Cardin-in the heart of the Appalachians-speak of all that's right and wrong in their world. Together, they tell a story of unforgettable resonance.