This Rock

Second Hand

Excellent Condition

From the author of Gap Creek (an international bestseller and Oprah Book Club Selection) comes the gripping story of two brothers struggling against each other and the confines of the Appalachian Mountains in the 1920s.

The Powell brothers, Muir and Moody, are as different as Cain and Abel. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea what to do about them. 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 privileged place in the family - takes to moonshine and gambling, and turns his anger on his brother. Muir escapes, hoping 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, her youth, and the fiery sense of God that once ordered her world.

When Muir discovers his purpose in life, the consequences are far-reaching and irrevocable: a commnunity threatens to tear itself apart, and his family is changed forever. All that's left in the aftermath are the memories of a new, wiser man.