![]() ![]() ![]() It stole everything it hadn't bothered to buyland deeds, private homes, and ultimately, the souls of its men and women. Giardina (Good King Harry has written one of those rare books that portrays a small world with impeccable clarity while telling an exciting story in vigorous, elegant prose. Annadel, West Virginia, was a small town rich in coal, farms, and close-knit families, all destroyed when the coal company came in. ![]() Stunning sensory images sear scenes on the mind's eye. As fast paced and compulsively readable as a thriller, this novel never overlooks the gentler pleasure of living on the land, falling in love, raising a family. The coal companies, the police and finally the federal government close in hundreds are killed and the man who masterminded the attack is shot. ![]() In 1921, an army of 10,000 workers marches on a single town. Families starve, die of malaria and dysentery and slowly, almost against their will, begin the fearsome job of fighting back. The inhabitants of the hills of Appalachia see their beloved land stolen by the coal companies forced to work in the mines, they are cheated out of their pay. discussion of West Virginia writer and activist Denise Giardina, perhaps best known for her novel Storming Heaven. The canvas is broad, the action complex but even minor characters quicken to life in this memorable, beautifully written novel. Four strong, entirely different voices evoke the passion and the pain of unionizing the coal mines of Kentucky and West Virginia in the early 20th century. ![]()
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