The Cove by Ron Rash

Ron Rash wastes no time before letting readers know that The Cove will include violent death. In the Prologue, which takes place in the 1950s, a government surveyor attempts to bring up a bucket of water from an abandoned well in the Appalachians of North Carolina. Instead, he brings up a human skull. The ominous atmosphere of impending doom created by this beginning prevails throughout the novel.

The story flashes back to the midst of World War I, when veteran Hank has returned minus one of his hands to his hard-luck farm in a dark, gloomy cove under the shadow of a cliff, rejoining his lonely sister Laurel. Shunned as a witch by most in the community, Laurel has little to look forward to in life until she chances to rescue an injured stranger in the woods, who brings her new possibilities for happiness. Although he is a mute who can neither read nor write, the mysterious stranger and Laurel forge a bond, but he has a secret, one which threatens to destroy their growing love.

As a counterpoint to the idyllic romance, this is also the story of a community in the midst of war mentality, with fear of German treachery fanned by the local super-patriotic army recruiter, Chauncey Feith, who has been kept from the actual fighting overseas through the influence of his rich father. Rash does an exceptionally good job of portraying this character, who proves the truism that nobody is as dangerous as a coward with a gun.

There must be something strange going on in the Appalachian regions, because almost every book I have ever read with that setting has been Gothic and doom and gloom. Do the people who reside there always live under a premonition that something very bad is about to happen? Whatever the case, this wild region does provide a fitting setting for dark stories of tragedy, and this novel is an excellent example. That it is also lyrical and poetic is a plus.

I would also highly recommend Rash's novel Serena.