Everyone knows about the Swallow Hill turpentine camp, but nobody wants to end up there unless they have no other choice. In Depression-era Deep South, farmhand Del Reese finds himself on the wrong side of his boss’s good graces – to stay in his current employ means that he’ll need to risk his life on a regular basis and his grisly death is inevitable. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Rae Lynn Cobb’s happy life with her clumsy but well-meaning turpentiner husband gets turned upside down by one unfortunate accident. All options that remain for her are untenable, and time is not on her side to find a way out of her predicament. For reasons, both wildly different and unexpectedly similar, Del and Rae Lynn leave their pasts behind and find their paths converging at Swallow Hill. Donna Everhart’s THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL follow Del and Rae Lynn as they each seek a fresh start, redemption, and an escape from the pasts that haunt them.
Immediately immersive and utterly captivating, Everhart’s THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL richly paints a picture of turpentine camps in the 1930s, and the hardships their workers endured. You will easily find yourself invested in hoping for the best for Del, Rae Lynn, and the coworkers that become both friends and saviors along the way. At the same time, you’ll be subtly educated on a moment in time in history you may not have been as familiar with prior to reading this work – you’ll learn what chipping, dipping, and tacking are and the good, the bad, and the ugly of living in the camps. THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL delicately explore the mistreatments endured across genders, races, and our natural habitat in this specific setting.
Everhart’s novel is divided into three parts, and in many ways, each part reads like a completely distinct story of its own. The novel’s earlier sections have a wonderful depth and richness that I loved, while the third part was not my favorite.
If you are looking for a read to help you escape your day-to-day place and time, you will absolutely be transported with this historical fiction novel. Donna Everhart masterfully breathes new life into a bygone moment in time with THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW HILL. This is a highly recommended addition to your must-read list if you love southern fiction, learning in depth about new topics through storytelling, a pinch of romance, and a heap of dramatic tension!
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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