A Land More Kind Than Home - Tapa dura

"Whew! Wiley Cash is the real deal and his first novel is an atmospheric crossroads filled with characters who long for better, but know that their best will never be good enough, is dense with stories intersecting like the branches in a laurel hell."--Nancy Peacock, author of "Life Without Water"

"Cinematic and symphonic: this is a compelling story revealed in a sequence of voices that are as pitch-perfect as they are irresistible. This is a wonderfully impressive debut: tender, muscled and unforgettable."--Rikki Ducornet, author of "The Fan Maker's Inquisition"

"Wiley Cash makes his debut with this fine, engaging novel, proving yet again that the South is an inexhaustible motherlode of literature. I'm sure he'll garner comparisons to Harper Lee, perhaps even to Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor, but Wiley Cash is Wiley Cash--a new, strong Southern voice in American fiction."--John Lawton, author of "A Lily of the Field"

"A chilling descent into the world of religious frenzy in small town North Carolina . . . The languid atmosphere seduces, and Cash's fine first effort pulls the reader into a shadowy, tormented world where wolves prowl in the guise of sheep."--Publishers Weekly

"A beautifully written morality tale."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Good old-fashioned storytelling. . . . With murder, religion, infidelity, domestic abuse, guns, whiskey and snake handling, "Land" is rich in unstable relationships and beautiful tragedy."--Ploughshares

"Cash's debut about a town gripped by a menacing preacher has the timeless qualities of the Old Testament. . . . [a] very good book."--The Daily Beast

""A Land More Kind Than Home" is a powerfully moving debut that reads as if Cormac McCarthy decided to rewrite Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird.""--Richmond Times-Dispatch

Mesmerizing . . . only Jess knows why his autistic older brother died on the very day he was taken into the church, and it s his voice that we carry away from this intensely felt and beautifully told story. --New York Times Book Review"

Cash adeptly captures the rhythms of Appalachian speech, narrating his atmospheric novel in the voices of three characters . . . The story has elements of a thriller, but Cash is ultimately interested in how unscrupulous individuals can bend decent people to their own dark ends. --Washington Post"

Jess Hall, growing up deep in the heart of an unassuming mountain town that believes in protecting its own, is plunged into an adulthood for which he is not prepared when his autistic older brother, Stump, sneaks a look at something he isn't supposed to, which has catastrophic repercussions. 100,000 first printing.