When this book was published in 2011, David Joy was an unknown author who had just graduated from Western Carolina University. Now he is the author of three very successful and highly tauted novels published by Big Five New York publishers. His facebook posts are still dominated by pictures of fish he has caught. Here's how he explains why he wrote this, his first book, "All my life I've felt this very deep connection with the natural world, and more specifically with fish. Growing Gills is an attempt to discover why that relationship exists and how that connection has made me into whom I've become...What I hope that people take away from this memoir is a respect for things wild, an affinity for natural places, and a desire to hold onto and protect our environmental heritage. Far too often it seems that we become too attached to the modern, technological world, and neglect the place that we all come from, a place that still holds purity and truth, a place filled with beauty, auroras, and the sound of water over stone. I hope it makes folks pack a bag and disappear into the trees."
Fairview, North Carolilna: Bright Mountain Books, 2011. 196 pages, illustrated by Michael Polomik. Trade Paperback.