Soil: A Novel - Tapa blanda

"Mississippi has done it again, given us yet another brilliant writer. Welcome, Jamie Kornegay, to a long line of kick-ass storytellers. Soil is one of the most memorable novels I've read in years, with a killer story told in killer language. Highly, highly recommended."
--Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

"Jamie Kornegay's prose is as rich and fertile as the Mississippi Delta landscape that spreads across the pages of Soil. It is poetic, both in its language and in the soulful complexity of its characters, all of them fallen and trudging along the hard worn path of redemption on dirty hands and knees."
--Michael F. Smith, author of Rivers

"A darkly droll, epic novel told in a style I'd have to call a deceptively swift amble through a most vividly rendered, watery Delta world. Anyone from Coleridge to Twain to Faulkner to William Gay would have loved reading this book, and you will, too."
--Brad Watson, author of The Heaven of Mercury and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

"Kornegay's skillful writing keeps the story gripping and the atmosphere haunting."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Kornegay's keenly observed novel is a bit of a slow burner at first, but it soon builds into a page-turning crescendo and a suspense-filled finale which will make your heart pound and leave you opened-mouthed in horror."
--Western Gazette

"Let us stand, brothers and sisters, to applaud the arrival of an exquisitely deranged new voice to American fiction. Dig your hands into this Soil to find gutty and peppery writing, an almost recklessly bold imagination, audacious empathy, and a story so twisty and volatile that nearly every turn feels electrifyingly unexpected. This rough-n-tumble model of Southern literature--the vehicle of choice for the late greats Barry Hannah, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, and William Gay--has felt stalled on the roadside for several years now; Jamie Kornegay just pulled up with some big-ass jumper cables."
--Jonathan Miles, author of Want Not and Dear American Airlines

"Jamie Kornegay's novel Soil heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice. This book is atmospheric 'as all get-out, ' as my grandmother might have said, and it crackles with intensity. It's everything I want a novel to be, a fine story well-told with characters I won't forget, set in a world so real you can smell it and taste it. Kornegay's something special."
-Steve Yarbrough, author of The Realm of Last Chances

"Marked by wry humor, unforgettable characters, and riveting suspense, Jamie Kornegay's Soil is a spellbinding Greek tragedy played out against the backdrop of the choked river-bottoms, sprawling fields, and dusty roads of the Mississippi Delta. A brilliant, haunting portrait of the havoc one desperate man's decisions and dreams can wreak upon himself and those around him. This remarkable novel springs from rich earth indeed, and the end result is a book that will leave readers reeling."
--Skip Horack, author of The Eden Hunter, and The Southern Cross

"Jamie Kornegay's powerful debut novel, Soil, is just as rich, dark and primal as the title suggests and it is hard not to discuss the various characters' plights without slipping into metaphor as they both literally and figuratively dig and tunnel and turn up all that is buried. This novel is brimming with suspense while continuously locating the fine line separating good from evil. Just as the soil delivers all that is decomposed and lost, it also brings promise of future growth and in this case, it is in the form of the protagonist's son. Kornegay's rendering of hope and innocence against the backdrop of depravity and darkness is admirable and moving." --Jill McCorkle, New York Times bestselling author of Life after Life

"Kornegay imbues his characters with depth and his story with suspense, but the real star of the book is the pungent and foreboding Mississippi earth itself. A promising debut from an assured new voice in Southern fiction."
--Library Journal

Not in his right mind after his wife and son leave him, environmental scientist Jay Mize, due to mounting paranoia, discovers a corpse on his property that pushes him to the very brink of madness as he, believing that he is being framed, tries to dispose of the body without telling the authorities.