Sidle Creek
by Jolene McIlwain
Buy on AmazonA NPR Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Books of 2023 A Library Journal 2023 Best Book Covers of the Year "Sidle Creek is one of the best story collections I’ve read in a long time." - Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena Set in the bruised, mined, and timbered hills of Appalachia in western Pennsylvania, Sidle Creek is a tender, truthful exploration of a small town and the people who live there, told by a brilliant new voice in fiction. In Sidle Creek, McIlwain skillfully interrogates the myths and stereotypes of the mining, mill, and farming towns where she grew up.…
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"The 22 stories in Jolene McIlwain’s debut collection all take place in the Appalachian plateau of western Pennsylvania, where the author grew up and lives now, and all convey the deep love of the people and place McIlwain has long called home. One of the collection’s recurring motifs is a masculine softness that isn’t always easy to express in words but that is nevertheless deeply felt. Another theme is community care; not in the Hollywoodized small town “aw shucks” kind of way, but rather in the difficult, intentional work of maintaining contact with one’s neighbors and trying to provide what people need."
NPR Books We Love — 2023 · apps.npr.org