If the Creek Don't Rise
A Novel
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
"An immersive and deeply emotional reading experience—especially satisfying for readers who love richly drawn characters and a strong sense of place" —NPR
He's gonna be sorry he ever messed with me and Loretta Lynn.
Sadie Blue has been a wife for fifteen days. That's long enough to know she should have never hitched herself to Roy Tupkin, even with the baby.
Sadie is desperate to make her own mark on the world, but in remote Appalachia, a ticket out of town is hard to come by and hope often gets stomped out. When a stranger sweeps into Baines Creek and knocks things off kilter, Sadie finds herself with an unexpected lifeline...if she can just figure out how to use it.
Fans of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek will love this intimate insight into a fiercely proud, tenacious community and relish the voices of the forgotten folks of Baines Creek.
With a colorful cast of characters and a flair for the Southern Gothic, If the Creek Don't Rise is a debut novel bursting with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit.
"Like all great southern writers, Leah Weiss's magic turns the local into the universal." —Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author, on All The Little Hopes
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this tender but powerful debut, Weiss paints both the bright and the dark in the lives of her fictional Appalachian community's denizens. It is the fall of 1970 in Baines Creek, N.C., where pregnant teen Sadie Blue is newly married to her unborn child's father, Rory Tupkin, a bully doesn't hesitate to beat her. Her grandmother, Gladys Hicks, once had to deal with her own abusive husband and feels that it is up to Sadie to do the same. Marris Jones is a good-hearted woman who wants to help Sadie, as does Kate Shaw, the strong-willed teacher new to the mountain, and Birdie Rocas, the witchy woman. Each of these women bring some good to Sadie's life and to others in the community. Others, like Rory and the preacher's sister, Prudence Perkins, only bring venom and pain to those around them. All of these and more get a chapter or two to spin their own tales, while Sadie's story slips in and out, highlighting Weiss's considerable characterization skills.