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Title details for The Killing Tree by Rachel Keener - Available

The Killing Tree

A Novel

by Rachel Keener
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
It's the summer after Mercy Heron graduates from high school, and she's living in the household of her domineering grandfather and a grandmother whose behavior has always been erratic — some folks even call it crazy. They've raised Mercy since her mother died giving birth to her under the June apple tree, after Father Heron locked her out and ignored her pleas for help.
Mercy's days are spent working at the local diner, and hanging out with her wild best friend Della. Unlike Della, she's never seriously considered leaving the insulated community on Crooked Top mountain. Not until that summer when she meets Trout, a man who opens Mercy's eyes to a world beyond what she's known — both physically and emotionally. Their relationship must be kept secret, because Father Heron won't approve of his granddaughter being involved with a migrant worker. But when Mercy tries to escape, she'll learn just how powerful, and ruthless, her grandfather can be. And the truth of her past will threaten to forever bind her to the mountain.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 18, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781599951867

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781599951867
      • File size: 337 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 6, 2008
      An Appalachian coming-of-age novel detours through a migrant workers camp for an intensely lyrical, emotional debut. Raised on Crooked Top Mountain, Mercy Heron was raised by her grandparents, crazy Rutha and cold church deacon Father Heron, after her unwed mother died in childbirth. Mercy, 18 and working as a diner waitress, falls in love with Trout, a migrant fruit picker who shares Rutha's connection to mountain magic. Echoing her mother's actions, Mercy tries to escape Father Heron's disapproval and goes on the run with Trout, and she's quickly thrown into the tumultuous life of a migrant worker. Despite her fortitude, Mercy finds she cannot avoid Father Heron's influence, and she returns to Crooked Top for a dangerous confrontation. Keener's vivid imagery and lush, folksy language evoke traditions about nature and mountain people, reality and myth, piety and sin. Though occasionally overwrought, the novel succeeds in bringing to life a slice of mountain life where old and new, foreign and native, real and imagined, poetic and mundane blend against a harsh and beautiful landscape.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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