Bücher von Wayne Caldwell

On the tails of Caldwell''s stunning debut, Cataloochee, comes Requiem By Fire, an expansive tale of land and the generations of people who live from it and die on it.1928. Rural Western North Carolina. The US Parks Services are here with cash on table to expand the national parks, and the folks currently occupying that land are faced with a decision. In this poignant, often riotously funny, and deeply human novel from Wayne Caldwell, we meet a stunning array of characters here to take us into their homes as they are faced with a watershed moment-one that comes to define the history of the area. Take the money and adjust to modernity? Or hold onto a past defined by those who''ve lived on the land for generations?In paperback for the first time, Requiem By Fire is an essentially Appalachian tale, one only made possible by Caldwell''s unparalleled knack for characterization and sense of place. With bawdy wit and moving narration, readers can expect Appalachian storytelling at its most powerful.Wayne Caldwell was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Appalachian State University, and Duke University. The author of Cataloochee, he began writing fiction in the late 1990s. Caldwell lives near Asheville with his wife, Mary.

"A brilliant portrait of a community and a way of life long gone, a lost America.”-Charles FrazierAgainst the breathtaking backdrop of Appalachia comes a rich, multilayered post—Civil War saga of three generations of families-their dreams, their downfalls, and their faith. Cataloochee is a slice of southern Americana told in the classic tradition of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner.Nestled in the mountains of North Carolina sits Cataloochee. In a time when "where you was born was where God wanted you,” the Wrights and the Carters, both farming families, travel to the valley to escape the rapid growth of neighboring towns and to have a few hundred acres all to themselves. But progress eventually winds its way to Cataloochee, too, and year after year the population swells as more people come to the valley to stake their fortune. Never one to pass on opportunity, Ezra Banks, an ambitious young man seeking some land of his own, arrives in Cataloochee in the 1880s. His first order of business is to marry a Carter girl, Hannah, the daughter of the valley's largest landowner. From there Ezra's brood grows, as do those of the Carters and the Wrights. With hard work and determination, the burgeouning community transforms wilderness into home, to be passed on through generations.But the idyll is not to last, nor to be inherited: The government takes steps to relocate folks to make room for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and tragedy will touch one of the clans in a single, unimaginable act.Wayne Caldwell brings to life the community's historic struggles and close kinships over a span of six decades. Full of humor, darkness, beauty, and wisdom, Cataloochee is a classic novel of place and family.