Announced on January 18, 2000
About the Book
At turns poetic and gritty, Robert Morgan's Gap Creek is a stunning follow-up to his critically acclaimed novel, The Truest Pleasure. Widely regarded as the poet laureate of Appalachia, Morgan captures the spirit of this wilderness territory he knows so well.
As the New York Times Book Review said, "Morgan is among the relatively few American writers who write about work knowledgeably, and as if it really matters... You begin to feel, as you sometimes do when reading Cormac McCarthy's or Harry Crew's early novels, that the author has been typing with blood on his hands and a good deal of it has rubbed off onto your shirtsleeves... His stripped-down and almost primitive sentences burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank Williams' best songs."
A must for fans of Cold Mountain, Gap Creek is an Appalachian story. It is also the story of a marriage — the story of a couple's first year. Julie and Hank can't keep their eyes off each other when they move to Gap Creek, just across the South Carolina line from their homes near Flat Rock, North Carolina. In Gap Creek they must forge a relationship while being tested by every imaginable act of God.
In the end it takes a flood — an apocalyptic, hell-bent water that nearly kills them both —to right their world and help them discover the survivors and the lovers within.
About the Author
A native of the North Carolina mountains, Robert Morgan was born in Hendersonville, and raised on land settled by his Welsh ancestors. He currently lives in Freeville, NY and teaches at Cornell University.
Since 1969, Morgan has published four books of fiction, including The Hinterlands (1994) and The Truest Pleasure (1995) named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable. He has published nine volumes of poetry and has published poems in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Poetry, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, The Carolina Quarterly and The New England Review.
Additional awards and honors include four NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the James G. Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Jacaranda Review Fiction Prize, and inclusion in New Stories From The South and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.
Book Reviews
"Morgan is among the relatively few American writers who write about work knowledgeably, and as if it really matters"
— The New York Times Book Review
"An ideal example of a regional tale: free of "local color," respectful of his people, entirely free of condescension, Morgan offers a gliding, unhurried story of sufferings and hope that is simple and tagged, but never seems alien. This couple'' relentless misfortunes are given no more drama than they need, and all the compassion they deserve."
— Kirkus Reviews Review
"Morgan is a writer with perfect emotional pitch, knowing how to keep the sorrow and job of his characters on a human scale."
— The Ithaca Times Review
"Haunting, lyrical prose sustains the book and redeems its material, which seems to flow from page to page like sorrowful mountain music." — American Way Review "Praise to Morgan for his literary accomplishment. What a wonderful gift book it would make."
— State, Columbia, SC Review
"The ordinary folk of Appalachia are Morgan's subjects, and here he offers another compassionate tale of poor people enduring brutal working lives and harsh deprivations with stoic dignity."
— Publisher's Weekly Review
"In the novel's final pages, Morgan's sentences begin to cut to the bone.I wanted to cry uncle and go bury this novel in my backyard, someplace where it wouldn't slip into my dreams. I couldn't take it anymore, and I mean that as a compliment."
— The New York Times
Get more resources on Gap Creek, an Oprah's Book Club selection.
View the Complete Oprah's Book Club List.
At turns poetic and gritty, Robert Morgan's Gap Creek is a stunning follow-up to his critically acclaimed novel, The Truest Pleasure. Widely regarded as the poet laureate of Appalachia, Morgan captures the spirit of this wilderness territory he knows so well.
As the New York Times Book Review said, "Morgan is among the relatively few American writers who write about work knowledgeably, and as if it really matters... You begin to feel, as you sometimes do when reading Cormac McCarthy's or Harry Crew's early novels, that the author has been typing with blood on his hands and a good deal of it has rubbed off onto your shirtsleeves... His stripped-down and almost primitive sentences burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank Williams' best songs."
A must for fans of Cold Mountain, Gap Creek is an Appalachian story. It is also the story of a marriage — the story of a couple's first year. Julie and Hank can't keep their eyes off each other when they move to Gap Creek, just across the South Carolina line from their homes near Flat Rock, North Carolina. In Gap Creek they must forge a relationship while being tested by every imaginable act of God.
In the end it takes a flood — an apocalyptic, hell-bent water that nearly kills them both —to right their world and help them discover the survivors and the lovers within.
About the AuthorA native of the North Carolina mountains, Robert Morgan was born in Hendersonville, and raised on land settled by his Welsh ancestors. He currently lives in Freeville, NY and teaches at Cornell University.
Since 1969, Morgan has published four books of fiction, including The Hinterlands (1994) and The Truest Pleasure (1995) named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable. He has published nine volumes of poetry and has published poems in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Poetry, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, The Carolina Quarterly and The New England Review.
Additional awards and honors include four NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the James G. Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Jacaranda Review Fiction Prize, and inclusion in New Stories From The South and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.
Book Reviews
"Morgan is among the relatively few American writers who write about work knowledgeably, and as if it really matters"
— The New York Times Book Review
"An ideal example of a regional tale: free of "local color," respectful of his people, entirely free of condescension, Morgan offers a gliding, unhurried story of sufferings and hope that is simple and tagged, but never seems alien. This couple'' relentless misfortunes are given no more drama than they need, and all the compassion they deserve."
— Kirkus Reviews Review
"Morgan is a writer with perfect emotional pitch, knowing how to keep the sorrow and job of his characters on a human scale."
— The Ithaca Times Review
"Haunting, lyrical prose sustains the book and redeems its material, which seems to flow from page to page like sorrowful mountain music." — American Way Review "Praise to Morgan for his literary accomplishment. What a wonderful gift book it would make."
— State, Columbia, SC Review
"The ordinary folk of Appalachia are Morgan's subjects, and here he offers another compassionate tale of poor people enduring brutal working lives and harsh deprivations with stoic dignity."
— Publisher's Weekly Review
"In the novel's final pages, Morgan's sentences begin to cut to the bone.I wanted to cry uncle and go bury this novel in my backyard, someplace where it wouldn't slip into my dreams. I couldn't take it anymore, and I mean that as a compliment."
— The New York Times
Get more resources on Gap Creek, an Oprah's Book Club selection.View the Complete Oprah's Book Club List.
Published 01/18/2000
