Wiley Cash, whose debut novel A Land More Kind Than Home has become a break-away bestseller, will be visiting BookBalloon from June 26 - 28. He'll be on hand to talk about his new book, answer questions, respond to criticisms and generally put himself in the line of fire. A normal reading in a bookstore might last two hours. A radio interview, thirty minutes. But Wiley will be at BookBalloon for three days, brave soul.
"I didn’t sleep well after I finished A Land More Kind Than Home because I kept thinking, All childhoods are not the same. Cruelty and innocence dwell together and always will. I can just imagine the intense work -- and the love -- that has gone into this." —Gail Godwin
About the book:
Faith is supposed to shield children from the horrors of the world, but one Sunday nine-year-old Jess Hall watches as his autistic brother is called into a little church in the mountains of North Carolina. What happens next forces Jess to question everything he once believed about his family and his faith. Clem Barefield, the local sheriff, arrives to find a group of charismatic believers who are unwilling to utter a word about the things Jess has seen. At the center of the mystery is Carson Chambliss, a snake handling ex-convict turned preacher whose past is just as mysterious as the power he claims to possess.
A Land More Kind Than Home has been compared to the works of John Hart and Tom Franklin, and is a literary thriller steeped in Southern small-town tradition that explores the ties that knit a community together, and the secrets that can break it apart. "I deeply love my native state of North Carolina," says the author, "especially its mountains. I hope my love for this region is evident in A Land More Kind than Home's portrayal of western North Carolina's people, culture, and religious faith."
Decide for yourself. Join us for a discussion with Wiley Cash June 26 - 28.