Gods of Howl Mountain

January 15, 2018
The powerful fourth novel from Brown (The River of Kings) is a Southern family drama set in 1952 among the lush mountains of North Carolina, where whiskey is as precious as mother’s milk and blood ties run deep. Korean War veteran Rory Docherty, whose wooden leg and persistent dreams won’t let him forget his past, runs moonshine whiskey for Eustace Uptree with Eustice’s nephew Eli. Rory’s fiery grandmother, folk healer Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, will do anything to keep him safe. They care for Rory’s institutionalized mother, Bonni, mute since an attack 22 years ago by three men—who were never caught—during which a boy was beaten to death and Bonni supposedly gouged out one of the men’s eyes. Rory feels hope when he meets the lovely Christine Adderholt at a church revival. He’s entranced, but her father, the one-eyed, snake-handling pastor Asa Adderholt awakens an uneasy suspicion inside him. Then Rory runs afoul of the psychotic Cooley Muldoon after a road race, and Muldoon’s vendetta sets the stage for an explosive third act. Brown’s lyrical prose invokes a verdant landscape whose rich past is woven into its roots and people; their dependence on the land and respect for its great mysteries are palpable. This tale of loyalty and retribution will linger with readers. Agent: Christopher Rhodes, the Stuart Agency.

Starred review from February 1, 2018
Rory Docherty returned from Korea, bringing home a wooden leg and a damaged psyche to his grandmother's cabin in the mountains of western North Carolina, where he faces dim prospects and a troubled past. His options are limited to running moonshine and outrunning the government revenuers in his beloved Ford, Maybelline, while reporting to Eustace Uptree, a fearsome WWII vet of near-mythical status. Rory does have one formidable ally, however, in the form of his badass Granny May, a corncob-pipe-smoking, razor-wielding former brothel owner turned folk healer, who concocts potions for the townsfolk for any affliction of body or mind. Brown (The River of Kings, 2017) immerses the reader in the mountain landscape, such that one can feel the rich soil as Granny May digs for roots, listen to nocturnal howls carried on the crisp night air, and smell the pig roasting over the fire. Brown's dialogue, too, is magical, capturing the local idioms and cadences and rendering them musical. Ultimately, though, it's the characters, so wonderfully vibrant and alive in their all-too-human varietyscared, tightly wound, angry, damaged, yet resourceful and resilient, some honorable, some notthat demonstrate Brown's prodigious talent. Brown has quickly established himself in the top echelon of Southern writers, and his latest will please readers of Wiley Cash and Ron Rash.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2018

In his third novel (after River of Kings), critically acclaimed novelist Brown gazes unflinchingly at the Howl Mountain community of 1950s North Carolina, an unforgiving world of revivalists, moonshiners, family secrets, and deep-rooted grudges. Fiercely self-reliant Maybelline "Granny May" Docherty, who sits on her porch with a loaded shotgun in her lap, knows every creek bed and hollow as she searches out the medicinal herbs she uses to make potions and poultices for her neighbors. World War I took her husband, leaving her to struggle alone with baby Bonni. Living with her now is Bonni's son, Rory, a Korean War veteran suffering flashbacks and the loss of a leg. Rory works at the only thing he knows, running whiskey in a powerful Ford coupe that can outdistance revenuers, crooked sheriffs, and rival whiskey cars. But heartache still follows this little family. A terrible incident has left Bonni institutionalized and traumatized into silence, and Granny May wrestles with the full, heart-wrenching truth while never hesitating to mete out her own mountain justice. VERDICT Not to be missed, this bold, dark, gritty novel is another coup for Brown, whose lyrical descriptions of the landscape only add to the captivating story of indomitable but isolated folks bound by folklore, tradition, and a hardscrabble life. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/17.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017

Author of The River of Kings and Fallen Land, Montana Prize winner Brown again vivifies the rural South, set in 1950s North Carolina. Folk healer Granny May mixes cures and potions as she tends grandson Rory, a bootlegger back from the Korean War with a wooden leg, whose institutionalized mother has remained mute for years.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018

In his third novel (after River of Kings), critically acclaimed novelist Brown gazes unflinchingly at the Howl Mountain community of 1950s North Carolina, an unforgiving world of revivalists, moonshiners, family secrets, and deep-rooted grudges. Fiercely self-reliant Maybelline "Granny May" Docherty, who sits on her porch with a loaded shotgun in her lap, knows every creek bed and hollow as she searches out the medicinal herbs she uses to make potions and poultices for her neighbors. World War I took her husband, leaving her to struggle alone with baby Bonni. Living with her now is Bonni's son, Rory, a Korean War veteran suffering flashbacks and the loss of a leg. Rory works at the only thing he knows, running whiskey in a powerful Ford coupe that can outdistance revenuers, crooked sheriffs, and rival whiskey cars. But heartache still follows this little family. A terrible incident has left Bonni institutionalized and traumatized into silence, and Granny May wrestles with the full, heart-wrenching truth while never hesitating to mete out her own mountain justice. VERDICT Not to be missed, this bold, dark, gritty novel is another coup for Brown, whose lyrical descriptions of the landscape only add to the captivating story of indomitable but isolated folks bound by folklore, tradition, and a hardscrabble life. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/17.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.