Hang the Moon
A Novel
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4.1 • 41 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A rollicking tale.” —The Washington Post *“Propulsive.” —Associated Press * “Wild, smart, energetic.” —Los Angeles Times * “Brilliant and effervescent.” —NPR
From the #1 bestselling author of The Glass Castle, the instant New York Times bestseller a “rip-roaring, action-packed” (The New York Times) novel about an indomitable young woman in prohibition-era Virginia.
Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.
Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place in the family. That’s a lot more complicated than Sallie expected, and she enters a world of conflict and lawlessness. Sallie confronts the secrets and scandals that hide in the shadows of the Big House, navigates the factions in the family and town, and finally comes into her own as a bold, sometimes reckless bootlegger.
“You’ll fall in love with Sallie on the very first page and keep rooting for her all the way through to the last” (Good Housekeeping) in this thrilling read that “goes down easy…like the forbidden whisky that defines the life of Sallie Kincaid” (Associated Press).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this intense historical drama set during the Prohibition era, the path toward happiness feels like a maze for one young woman. Strong and independent Sallie Kincaid grows up the daughter of the Duke, an influential bootlegger and the richest man in her Virginia county. The pair have a complicated relationship, which only gets trickier when she follows in her dad’s illegal footsteps after turning 18. Novelist Jeannette Walls, who wrote her breakthrough memoir The Glass Castle back in 2006, makes even the most morally dubious characters complex and relatable. Her detailed descriptions of 1920s rural Appalachia swept us away, but this is Sallie’s story all the way. Get ready to fall in love with a strong heroine determined to make it in a dangerous man’s world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Walls's breathtaking latest (after The Silver Star) traces the trajectory of two feuding Virginia families and a woman who rises to the top of a bootlegging empire. For more than 50 years, bad blood has permeated relations between the bootlegging Kincaid family and the Bond brothers, starting with the Kincaids' questionable acquisition of 88 acres from the Bonds. Sallie Kincaid's enigmatic father, "the Duke," controls an Emporium general store, warehouse, lumber mill, hauling company, and rental properties, and after a string of unexpected deaths in the family, Sallie takes charge of the family business during the Prohibition years. As "Queen of the Kincaid Rumrunners," Sally comes to oversee a profitable business that amplifies the backwoods dispute into a full-fledged violent war with the Bonds, who avenge the Kincaids' land grab with a calamitous act of escalation, entangling both families and exposing scandalous secrets. The thrilling plot culminates in bombshell revelations and massive conflagrations, and through it all Sallie makes for an indelible heroine as she fights for her life and livelihood. This is a stunner.
