The protagonist, Lenny, after losing his arm to his abusive older brothers, escapes the Western North Carolina farm where he has lived his whole life seeking to follow rivers downstream to the ocean, but his stolen skiff sinks, landing him in the clutches of a drug-dealing priest, forcing him, once again, to attempt an escape. Will his circumstances land him again back home having learned that nowhere else is safe? The author, R. Cathey Daniels, grew up in Western North Carolina, graduated from Brevard College there, and earned a masters in education from UNC. After teaching in East Tennessee, she became a reporter for The Oak Ridger and still resides in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, after studying novel-writing at Stanford.
New York: Black Lawrence Press, 2022. 300 pages. Trade paperback.