Above the Waterfall
written by Ron Rash
Spare and taut, Ron Rash’s work is always a pleasure.
He is able, in a few well chosen words, to simultaneously create devastation and awe. His new novel, Above the Waterfall, may be his most lyrical yet.
Rash, a poet and teacher as well as a fiction writer, puts poetry in prose form as he gives voice to Becky, a park ranger who has had a violent and difficult past. The darkness lends her sharp observational powers: “On a maypop vine a caterpillar clings. Acharia stimulea. Oarlike legs, whitebristled body, green and brown back. Soon it will sleep in its self-spun shroud, winter-dreaming as spring’s moth-wings slowly sprout.”
Intermixed with Becky’s story is the worn voice of Les, a county sheriff whose retirement is weeks away. His sections are more curt, his voice less lovely, but his observations no less keen. He deals with a meth bust and its consequences as well as a frought situation involving a local resort and an old-timer named Gerald, to whom Becky is very attached.
A hint of mystery and the possibility of romance between Les and Becky keep the plot intriguing, but the real lure here is Rash’s gorgeous language and his own keen-eyed gaze at the tangled webs within communities and how near the edge all life hovers.
If You Go: Ron Rash reading and book signing, Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 11 a.m. at Blue Ridge Books, 152 S. Main St., Waynesville. For details, call (828) 456-6000, or visit www.blueridgebooksnc.com
One Year After
written by William R. Forstchen
Forstchen holds a Ph.D. in history from Purdue University, with specializations in military history and the history of technology. He is currently a faculty fellow and professor of history at Montreat College, near Asheville.
One Year After is the thrilling follow-up to the smash hit, One Second After. Months before publication, One Second After was cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read.
The novel tells the story of how a small town copes immediately following an attack against the United States by an electromagnetic pulse weapon. The small town featured is none other than Black Mountain, NC.
One Year After picks up a year after One Second After ends, two years since the detonation of nuclear weapons above the United States brought America to its knees. After suffering starvation, war, and countless deaths, the survivors of Black Mountain are beginning to piece back together the technologies they had once taken for granted: electricity, radio communications, and medications. They cling to the hope that a new national government is finally emerging.
Then comes word that most of the young men and women of the community are to be drafted into an “Army of National Recovery” and sent to trouble spots hundreds of miles away.
When town administrator John Matherson protests the draft, he’s offered a deal: leave Black Mountain and enter national service, and the draft will be reduced. But the brutal suppression of a neighboring community under its new federal administrator and the troops accompanying him suggests that all is not as it should be with this burgeoning government.
If You Go: Reading and discussion with William R. Forstchen, author of One Year After, on Saturday, October 10, 2015 at 3 p.m. at Blue Ridge Books, 152 S. Main St. Waynesville. For more details, please call (828) 456-6000, or visit www.blueridgebooksnc.com
Elizabeth Gilbert Reading
Elizabeth Gilbert, the beloved author of Eat, Pray, Love, The Signature of All Things, and The Last American Man, returns to Asheville!
Gilbert’s newest book, Big Magic, explores the eons-old question: Where does inspiration come from? And how can we put our ideas into action to change our lives? Gilbert jumps headfirst into these topics in this wonderful, vibrant book, written in her signature sparkling, conversational prose.
With sections on how you can access and direct your creativity, it’s an inspirational work with universal relevance that will move you “to dream of a life without limits.”
If You Go: Elizabeth Gilbert, Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 7 p.m. at the Asheville High School Auditorium. Tickets are $35 and include a pre-signed copy of the book. Purchase tickets at Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café, 55 Haywood St., Asheville. (828) 254-6734, www.malaprops.com.
