About this item
"A fresh, authentic, and eloquent new voice in American fiction." - Robert Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of Gap CreekIn Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina.Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline "Granny May" Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory's mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows...or protect her only grandson from the past.With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.
About the Author
Taylor Brown grew up on the Georgia coast. He is the author of a short story collection, IN THE SEASON OF BLOOD AND GOLD, as well as four novels: FALLEN LAND, THE RIVER OF KINGS, GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN, and PRIDE OF EDEN (St. Martin's Press) . He is the recipient of a Montana Prize in Fiction and a three-time finalist for the Southern Book Prize. His work has been short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, Garden & Gun, The Bitter Southerner, Chautuaqua, Southwest Review, and many others. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, where he's the founder and editor-in-chief of BikeBound.com. You can find him at www.taylorbrownfiction.com.
