Their Houses
West Virginia University Press
West Virginia University Press
9781946684349
$19.99
Paperback
2018-06-29
2018-06-29
As children, two sisters make homes for their toys out of matchboxes and shoeboxes, trying to create safe places after the loss of their mother to psychosis.
Grace, a schoolteacher married to a doctor, appears to have a conventional life but has a breakdown during a undesired move her beloved cottage to another house. Dinah has married a once self-ordained preacher with a troubled past and tries to keep her children safely separate from the world. Meanwhile, a childhood friend is linked to a militia’s abortive attempt to blow up the FBI’s fingerprint records facility in West Virginia, and later builds an isolated survivalist compound in the mountains.
These three adults, closely bonded in childhood, are reunited on this acreage once owned by a white supremacist group, where they discover in various ways that there is no final protection, no matter how hard they strive to find it or make it.
5.500in x 8.500in x 0.600in
Weight data not found for this book.
“Full of surprising twists and turns, this sharp, tough-minded, compelling novel takes us deeply into its high-low milieus and conflicted characters. A cross between noir and redemption, it’s a terrific read.”
Phillip Lopate, author of Portrait Inside My Head
“Every move in this jolt-filled tale—told in the sweet, slyly humorous cadences of West Virginia—is perfect. Willis has the stuff from beginning to end.”
Diane Simmons, author of The Courtship of Eva Eldridge
“With deep sympathy for her characters, Willis writes in lucid and compelling prose about one of the dark undersides of American life. Their Houses reads fast, as a compelling series of mysteries, and reminds us of how much legacy we all carry, not only in our bodies and our genes but in our stories.”
Jane Lazarre, author of The Communist and the Communist’s Daughter and Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness: Memoir of a White Mother of Black Sons
“A timely story.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A surprisingly tender portrait of the bonds that keep friends and families afloat.”
Foreword Reviews
"Their Houses gives its readers many of the best elements one could want from a novel: flawed characters portrayed generously, well-balanced plots, and a clear, conversational narrative voice that guides the reader along. With an entertaining blend of high-action farce and moving interpersonal drama, Their Houses both entertains in the moment and lingers after the last page."
American Book Review
"A timely, relatable read."
Appalachian Heritage
252 Pages
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