Breece D'J Pancake cut short a remarkably promising career when he took his own life in 1979 at the age of twenty-six. In 1983 the posthumous publication of this book - a collection of stories that depict, with astonishing power and grace, the world of Pancake's native rural West Virginia - electrified the literary world with a force that still resounds across two decades. One is tempted to compare his debut to Hemingway's' - Joyce Carol Oates 'An exceptional voice' - Margaret Atwood 'The best, most sincere writer I've ever read' - Kurt Vonnegut'