Gone From Home

Since the 2016 presidential election, Americans have witnessed countless stories about Appalachia: its changing political leanings, its opioid crisis, its increasing joblessness, and its declining population. These stories, however, largely ignore black Appalachian lives. Karida L. Brown's Gone Home offers a much-needed corrective to the current whitewashing of Appalachia. In telling the stories of African Americans living and working in Appalachian coal towns, Brown offers a sweeping look at race, identity, changes in politics and policy, and black migration in the region and beyond. Drawn from over 150 original oral history interviews with former and current residents of Harlan County, Kentucky, Brown shows that as the nation experienced enormous transformation from the pre- to the post-civil rights era, so too did black Americans. In reconstructing the life histories of black coal miners, Brown shows the mutable and shifting nature of collective identity, the struggles of labor and representation, and that Appalachia is far more diverse than you think.

Building on the success of "May I Walk You Home?," this collection of stories helps readers navigate the bewildering landscape of grief. The authors reflect on their own stories of loss, as well as those of others, and offer meditations to assist readers through some of the more difficult issues that come with the loss of a loved one.

From the bestselling author of Tides of Honour and Promises to Keep comes a poignant novel about a young couple caught on opposite sides of the Second World War. In the fall of 1939, Grace Baker’s three brothers, sharp and proud in their uniforms, board Canadian ships headed for a faraway war. Grace stays behind, tending to the homefront and the general store that helps keep her small Nova Scotian community running. The war, everyone says, will be over before it starts. But three years later, the fighting rages on and rumours swirl about “wolf packs” of German U-Boats lurking in the deep waters along the shores of East Jeddore, a stone’s throw from Grace’s window. As the harsh realities of war come closer to home, Grace buries herself in her work at the store. Then, one day, a handsome stranger ventures into the store. He claims to be a trapper come from away, and as Grace gets to know him, she becomes enamoured by his gentle smile and thoughtful ways. But after several weeks, she discovers that Rudi, her mysterious visitor, is not the lonely outsider he appears to be. He is someone else entirely—someone not to be trusted. When a shocking truth about her family forces Grace to question everything she has so strongly believed, she realizes that she and Rudi have more in common than she had thought. And if Grace is to have a chance at love, she must not only choose a side, but take a stand. Come from Away is a mesmerizing story of love, shifting allegiances, and second chances, set against the tumultuous years of the Second World War.

"Smart and defiant. Rich with characters and anecdote and heart. A great success." --Anthony Swofford, New York Times Book Review Has the futureever more people with their houses, stores, roads, and sprawlbeen wrecking your past? Melissa Holbrook Pierson, with unalloyed insight, elucidates how it feels to lose that landscape of home. In the past twenty years, like countless towns it resembles, Akron, Ohio, has lost its singularity, and much of what native-daughter Pierson loves about it. She then moves to Hoboken, New Jersey, a forgotten appendage of New Yorkuntil stockbrokers discover it. Finally, she speaks of rural areas, telling of the thousands of upstate New Yorkers displaced by city reservoirs. A unique book uniquely of our moment: This is what it feels like to lose the place you love.

Stairway to Heaven: Grandma Has Gone Home is a heartwarming, reflective, and reassuring story that chronicles one child’s experience with the loss of a beloved grandparent. In this experience, Molly has lots of questions. Molly’s desire to make sense of her world without her grandma brings to light the reality that life is short and that there will never be a right time to say goodbye to a loved one. Lost in her world and making some sense of why our loved ones leave, she finds that there is a shimmering light of hope. Molly is better able to make sense of this difficult time by piecing together her memories of what it was like when Grandma was around. She begins to understand that her memories are what will carry her throughout the rest of her life as she learns to accept that Grandma will no longer be an integral part of it. Better yet, she learns that Grandma will be a constant and permanent memory that will remain in her heart forever.

The dancing girls have all gone home from the dance halls from the footlights from the red lights from the blue lights from the dim lights from the corners from the alleys from the rent by the hour rooms from the cops the pimps the dealers the rapists the beatings the ERs the johns the marks the glamor of the graveyard shift.