The Poison Flood
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
"A near-Shakespearean snarl, a mad, seven-day action crucible set in the West Virginia wild...The Poison Flood is an ambitious saga, cockamamie and passionate. Through Hollis, Farmer produces a pocket Hillbilly manifesto."--Atlanta Journal Constitution
A captivating, gritty, and tender story of a reclusive musician and the local disaster that threatens his small town and changes his life forever.
Hollis Bragg lives on the fringes. The hunchbacked son of a West Virginia hill preacher, he now resides in rural isolation next to the burned-out husk of his father's church, and earns his living ghostwriting songs for a popular band that left the poverty and corruption of Appalachia and never looked back. It's the life he prefers, free from the harsh glare of the spotlight and attachments that lead only to heartbreak.
Then, much to his consternation, he's discovered by Russell Watson, a local musician and fan who also happens to be the rebellious son of the local chemical company magnate. When a devastating toxic spill at the Watson chemical plant poisons the local water, it sets off an unpredictable series of events as Hollis witnesses a murder, faces a shocking betrayal, and begins to come to terms with his body and his past. Soon Hollis will find that in losing his anonymity and reclaiming his music, he can transform his future; and in opening himself up to the world, he might find redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This affecting novel from Farmer (The Pallbearer) combines an unconventional lead with a sobering portrayal of an environmental disaster's impact on a small community. Though Hollis Bragg is a gifted songwriter, paid for writing lyrics for a popular singing group without attribution, his self-esteem is diminished by the hunchback he's had most of his life, which has made him an object of derision. Environmental protests in his hometown of Coopersville, W.Va., which has been economically depressed since the closing of the local coal mines a few years earlier, prompt him to launch a new creative project, a concept album featuring songs "performed by a sick minstrel... who travels a wasteland version of America." He puts that endeavor on hold after a leak from a chemical tank pollutes the area's water, driving the residents to extreme measures to survive. Bragg gets involved in a murder related to the crisis, but the crime subplot is secondary to the lead's struggles to come to terms with his past and himself. Farmer is especially good at making the despair of Coopersville palpable. Readers who like their fiction to have a social conscience will want to take a look.
