Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash

Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash

"Rash captures the gritty realities of modern Appalachia with mournful precision...the novel contemplates timeless questions about human frailty, the divinity of nature and the legacies of our native landscapes." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A poetic and haunting tale set in contemporary Appalachia, New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash illuminates lives shaped by violence and a powerful connection to the land.

Les, a long-time sheriff just three-weeks from retirement, contends with the ravages of crystal meth and his own duplicity in his small Appalachian town.

Becky, a park ranger with a harrowing past, finds solace amid the lyrical beauty of this patch of North Carolina.

Enduring the mistakes and tragedies that have indelibly marked them, they are drawn together by a reverence for the natural world. When an irascible elderly local is accused of poisoning a trout stream, Les and Becky are plunged into deep and dangerous waters, forced to navigate currents of disillusionment and betrayal that will force them to question themselves and test their tentative bond--and threaten to carry them over the edge.

Echoing the heartbreaking beauty of William Faulkner and the spiritual isolation of Carson McCullers, Above the Waterfall demonstrates once again the prodigious talent of "a gorgeous, brutal writer" (Richard Price) hailed as "one of the great American authors at work today" (Janet Maslin, New York Times).

Ron Rash is the author of various collections of poetry and short stories, as well as the prize-winning novels One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight. He has been awarded an O. The Fellowship of Southern Writers awarded him the Henry Prize and the James Still Award. He won the 2004 Weatherford Award for Best Novel and the 2005 SEBA Best Book Award for Fiction for Saints at the River. Rash lives in Clemson, South Carolina, and holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.