Giveaway: The Cove (A Novel)

The Cove, the new novel from New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash, is a haunting evocation of America’s past, set in the Appalachian Hill country that this award-winning writer has so effectively claimed as his literary terrain. Set in 1918 during the last months of the Great War, this deeply affecting work of fiction is a story of love doomed by society’s ignorance, misplaced nationalism, and the vagaries of history.

In an isolated cove in the dark North Carolina hills, Laurel Shelton lives on the family’s hardscrabble farm with her brother, Hank. Her natural beauty marred by a purple birthmark, Laurel has been shunned since she was a child by the local population, who believes she bears the mark of a curse. Indeed, the cove itself is believed to be cursed, and family events would bear out that superstition.

One day, Laurel hears beautiful music in the woods, and she spies a disheveled drifter playing a flute by the creek. Checking back each day, she finds him still there in his sequestered place, then one day discovers him felled by an attack of bees. Dragging him back to the cabin, Laurel nurses him back to health. Hank’s reluctance in having a stranger in the house is assuaged when the young man, Walter, proves a worthwhile hand around the farm. All they know about Walter, who is mute and cannot read, is that he is a musician who wishes to return to New York City.

What they don’t know about Walter is that he is a German national who has escaped from a nearby camp, where he was being held as a wartime detainee after working as a musician on a German cruise ship. Laurel quickly falls for Walter, and Hank, who has marriage plans of his own and would love to see his outcast sister settled, encourages the match. Walter is set upon returning to New York, but when forced to seek refuge again in the cove, his silent reappearance is interpreted as love. And it does blossom into love. But Laurel’s happiness is short-lived as she uncovers the truth about Walter—and must decide what course to take.

About the Author

Ron Rash, who has been called the “Bard of Appalachia,” is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Finalist and New York Times bestselling novel, Serena, in addition to three other prize-winning novels, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; three collections of poems; and four collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

I have the chance to give away a copy of the novel. To enter, leave a comment with why this story intrigues you. Deadline is December 14th.