This Rock

From the author of Gap Creek--an international bestseller and winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award--comes the gripping story of two brothers struggling against each other and the confines of their mountain world in 1920s Appalachia. The Powell brothers--Muir and Moody--are as different as Cain and Abel. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams. Moody, the older and wilder brother--embittered by the death of his father, by years of fighting his mother, and by his jealousy of Muir's place in the family--takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother. Muir escapes by wandering, making his way around the country in attempts to find something--an occupation, a calling--to match his ambition. Through it all, their mother, Ginny, tries to steer her boys right, all the while remembering her own losses: her husband (whose touch still haunts her), her youth, and the fiery sense of God that once ordered her world. When Muir, in a drunken vision, decides that his purpose in life is to clear a space on a hill and build a stone church with his own hands, the consequences of his plan are far-reaching and irrevocable: a community threatens to tear itself apart, men die, and his family is forever changed. All that's left in the aftermath are the ghosts and the memories of a new man.

About the Author :
Robert Morgan is the bestselling author of numerous works of fiction-including the Oprah Book Club selection Gap Creek-and nonfiction, and is also an established poet with fourteen collections to his credit. Born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, he teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he is Kappa Alpha Professor of English. Sally Darling, a graduate of Wellesley, made her professional debut as Anna in The King and I with members of the original Broadway cast. She worked with Katherine Houghton in a production of Murder in the Cathedral performed in the chapel at West Point Military Academy. As a director, she has workshopped productions of musicals slated for Broadway. She has directed numerous regional productions and has created several revues. She is also an acclaimed audiobook narrator. Tom Stechschulte has narrated well over a hundred audiobooks and has won many AudioFile Earphones Awards. He won the prestigious Audie Award in 2009 and has been a finalist for the Audie in 2005 and 2011. As an actor, he has been seen in eleven Broadway shows as well as numerous television and film shows, including the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. He was featured on one of the most famous episodes of The Incredible Hulk ever, September 1979's "Blind Rage."