Not only one of the best short story collections I’ve read, but one of the best works of fiction of the decade. McIlwain takes the beautiful and harsh landscapes of Appalachian West Pennsylvania and creates community with the landscape, the creeks and rivers, the wildlife and the wonderfully complex people who live there. They are not all lovable people, and the situations where, especially young people, encounter will tax the readers understanding of right and wrong. McIlwain is a seasoned writer with a deft hand at descriptive narrative, spot on dialect and dialogue and an imagination that takes stories handed down through myth and generation and paints a picture of America that we don’t often see. She’s been compared to Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx and others concerned with people in troubled landscapes just trying to get by. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, is another book we loved this year, for bringing people of the mountains forward in ways that help even city dwellers get it. McIlwain clearly “gets it” and this book should jump to the top of your stack for both individual and reading groups alike.
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