Gap Creek
Book description
A New York Times Bestseller & Oprah's Book Club Pick
Young Julie Harmon works “hard as a man,” they say, so hard that at times she’s not sure she can stop. People depend on her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. People are weak, and there is so…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Gap Creek as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Gap Creek drops you into Appalachian mountain life in the nineteenth century with characters so real you forget they don’t exist. You worry about them as you turn each page.
The reader is transported to a place that truly exists. I know it. Robert’s brilliance as a writer is evident from page one. His sense of place and purpose draws us in. We experience with characters Julie and Hank a hard knock life and how the spirit triumphs against all odds. And we’re all the better for having read their story.
This depiction of a life of poverty in southern Appalachia around 1900 would be too sad to warrant its reading, were it not for its strong and sensitive narrator, Julie Harmon. The author describes the mundane details of butchering a hog or washing of a dead man’s feet within the context of the marriage of Hank and Julie, poor, uneducated, and perhaps mismatched young people who face one adversity after another. The details of ordinary life blossom into unexpected meaning in the interpretation of a sensitive narrator who not only cherishes details, but who is also exquisitely aware of her…
From Solveig's list on where characters don’t mingle much and talk funny.
Want books like Gap Creek?
Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Gap Creek.
5 book lists we think you will like!
Interested in rural, Appalachia, and coming of age?
10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about rural, Appalachia, and coming of age.