Her entry begins:A book is like a blind date. It’s a crazy dare, a dizzy risk, a desperate plunge, the longest of long shots, a hopeful bet on love even when you know better.About Sorrow Road, from the publisher:
Not all books are that way, of course. Sometimes they arrive via a friend’s recommendation or a line in a professor’s syllabus, or in response to a rapturous review by some trusted source.
But the books we pick up seemingly by happenstance, the books that call to us because of a certain color in the cover art or poetic sound to the title, the books that we read on sheer speculation, the books about which we know nothing, the books created by authors of whom we’ve never heard—these are the little miracles that make life magical.
I happen to be reading two such books right now. I found them on a recent book tour of my own. My habit is to buy a book in each bookstore at which I speak. I try not to go for books I’ve read about; I can get those later. The closed-eye fetch is all about literary serendipity. It is about trusting the universe to guide me toward exactly what I need to be reading right now.
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra and...[read on]
In 1944, three young men from a small town in West Virginia are among the American forces participating in D-Day, changing the fortunes of the war with one bold stroke. How is that moment aboard a Navy ship as itLearn more about the book and author at Julia Keller's website.barrels toward the Normandy shore related to the death of an old man in an Appalachian nursing home seventy-two years later?
In Sorrow Road, the latest mystery from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Julia Keller, two stories—one set in the turbulent era of World War II and one in the present day—are woven together to create a piercingly poignant tale of memory and family, of love and murder.
Bell Elkins, prosecuting attorney in Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, is asked by an old acquaintance to look into the death of her beloved father in an Alzheimer’s care facility. Did he die of natural causes—or was something more sinister to blame? And that’s not the only issue with which Bell is grappling: Her daughter Carla has moved back home. But something’s not right. Carla is desperately hiding a secret.
Once again, past and present, good and evil, and revenge and forgiveness clash in a riveting story set in the shattered landscape of Acker’s Gap, where the skies can seem dark even at high noon, and the mountains lean close to hear the whispered lament of the people trapped in their shadow.
Writers Read: Julia Keller (September 2012).
Writers Read: Julia Keller (September 2013).
Writers Read: Julia Keller (September 2014).
Writers Read: Julia Keller (September 2015).
Writers Read: Julia Keller.
--Marshal Zeringue
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