Their backgrounds were different, as were the circumstances that brought them together. Rae Lynn Cobb fled the home she had lived in with her husband when a tragedy occurred. Delwood Reese, too, was running from a bad situation. They meet at Swallow Hill - a turpentine camp. Turpentine was something they both were familiar with. Can they survive in this dangerous place?
Set in the South during the Depression, Swallow Hill was the worst of places during the worst of times. Surviving the horrid conditions took as much effort as the demanding work did. The author has created two fascinating protagonists. They are carefully constructed, complex and authentic. Rae Lyn and Del knew that their only chance for survival was to leave the camp. Something that was much easier said than done. The secondary characters are a unique group. Amongst them are the worst of the worst, and much of the tension in the narrative comes from them. Swallow Hill was not the place where romance could flourish, but this is where it did begin in this well-written story.
Well plotted and gripping, THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL is a book that should be read. This part of American history, that some people may not be aware of, is strikingly brought to life. It is filled with hope and second chances. Highly recommended.
Where the Crawdads Sing meets The Four Winds as award-winning author Donna Everhart's latest novel immerses readers in its unique setting--the turpentine camps and pine forests of the American South during the Great Depression--for a captivating story of friendship, survival, and three vagabonds' intersecting lives. It takes courage to save yourself...
Few writers evoke the complexities of the heart and the gritty fascination of the American South as vividly as Donna Everhart, whose lyrical new novel, set against the background of the Great Depression, is a powerful story of courage, survival, and friendship... In the dense pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners labor, hacking into tree trunks to draw out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling the resin to stills to be refined. Among them is Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, who run a small turpentine farm together.
Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, is thankful for it--and for her kind if careless husband. When Warren falls victim to his own negligence, Rae Lynn undertakes a desperate act of mercy. To keep herself from jail, she disguises herself as a man named "Ray" and heads to the only place she can think of that might offer anonymity--a turpentine camp in Georgia named Swallow Hill.
Swallow Hill is no easy haven. The camp is isolated and squalid, and commissary owner Otis Riddle takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Although Rae Lynn works tirelessly, she becomes a target for Crow, the ever-watchful woods rider who checks each laborer's tally. Delwood Reese, who's come to Swallow Hill hoping for his own redemption, offers "Ray" a small measure of protection, and is determined to improve their conditions. As Rae Lynn forges a deeper friendship with both Del and Cornelia, she begins to envision a path out of the camp. But she will have to come to terms with her past, with all its pain and beauty, before she can open herself to a new life and seize the chance to begin again.
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