Library Journal
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Set in the mountains of western North Carolina, this latest story collection by Rash (Serena) captures the unique, complex culture and history of the Appalachian region. Life and circumstances are often challenging in this part of America, and Rash doesn't shy from including many of the issues facing the region today, especially methamphetamine addiction. Ranging in time from the Civil War to the present, these stories aren't happy, but there's a great feel for the resiliency and determination of mountain people, whether a young woman protecting her livestock and home from roaming Confederate soldiers, a boy trying to keep his family together while his parents are more interested in getting high, or parents working two jobs to help their daughter go to college even as they count the days until her tour in Afghanistan is over. VERDICT Indeed rich and strange and sometimes haunted, this work will certainly appeal to fans of short fiction and Appalachian literature, but it's well worth a try for anyone interested in beautifully crafted short stories. Rash is a modern Southern master who deserves mention with the likes of Eurora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. [See Prepub Alert, 4/14/14; previewed as Above the Waterfall.]-Shaunna E. Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* This collection of 34 stories by the poet and fiction writer of best-sellers Serena (2008) and The Cove (2012) is set in the mountains of Virginia and North and South Carolina. Often compared with Flannery O'Connor, Rash is the master of his craft and a recorder of Appalachia, bringing emotional, historical, and geographical truths to the fore. Ties of family, by birth, marriage and choice, feature strongly in these stories, which range from rip-your-heart-out sad to the patently ridiculous. In Shiloh, Benjamin Miller deserts the army after his first battle and returns home to face an unbearable situation. The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth in Cliffside, North Carolina, narrated by a churchgoing woman whose ex-spouse is a snake-oil salesman, demonstrates, in a most hilarious manner, how modern-day hubris can (most satisfactorily) trip said husband up. The poet in Rash comes out in every story, in language so choice that even his shortest stories pack a serious wallop. Hard Times depicts, in fewer than 11 pages, both the tolerance built into a long-term marriage and the brutality of life in the mountains during the Great Depression. Readers will want to read slowly, dipping into the contents judiciously to extend the pleasures of this stunning collection.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2014 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This selection of 34 stories from four collections signals the growing prominence of a fine author; the movie of his enthralling 2008 novel Serena is due this fall. Rash's writing is rooted in the mountains of North Carolina, the region's history and folkways.These stories describe a hardscrabble landscape streaked with violence that, in Rash's telling, is graphic but never gratuitous. Some are set in the present, others in the past, which should be respected and remembered. A visiting Briton's ignorance of his family's history results in his savage punishment ("A Servant of History"); a mercenary moocher trashes soldiers' graves and also gets his comeuppance ("Dead Confederates"). The most powerful contemporary stories highlight the ravages of meth addiction. Further back in time, "Hard Times" glimpses lives broken by Depression-era poverty, while the Civil War-related stories have an almost crystalline quality. The mountains are predominantly for the Union; a young wife, alone on her farm, must battle a scavenging Confederate soldier ("Lincolnites"). Pity Ethan Burke in "The Dowry." The war over, the young Union soldier hopes to marry the daughter of a Confederate colonel, who lost a hand on the battlefield. The colonel's condition is that he receive a severed hand first. Even more haunting is the plight of two runaway slaves seeking shelter from a farmer maddened by grief over the loss of his son and wife ("Where the Map Ends"). He helps one slave on his way but detains the other; a rope hangs ready in the barn. Yet there's light relief here too, from the antics of three dummies and one smart bear in the wilderness ("A Sort of Miracle") to a memorable fish story ("Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes"). These superbly suspenseful stories evoke a world of hurt, but what makes them so deeply satisfying is that they enlarge our capacity for empathy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.