Virgil Caudill has never gone looking for trouble, but this time he's got no choice -- his hell-raising brother Boyd has been murdered. Everyone knows who did it, and in the hills of Kentucky, tradition won't let a murder go unavenged. No matter which way he chooses, Virgil will lose.
The Good Brother, Chris Offutt's finely crafted first novel, is the story of Virgil's struggle to find his real self in the wake of an impossible choice. Traversing the American landscape from the hollows of Eastern Kentucky to the plains of Montana, Offutt explores the hunger for belonging that...

Seven years ago, Chris Offutt made his literary debut with Kentucky Straight, a fiercely original collection that earned him not only critical praise but many prestigious awards.
The eight new stories in Out of the Woods mark Offutt's return to the form in which he first displayed his astonishing talent. Offutt, who "draws landscape and constructs dialogue with the eyes and ears of a native son" (The Miami Herald), is on strong home turf here, capturing those who have left the Kentucky hills and long to return. These are stories of gravediggers and drifters,...

Here is a collection of some of the best fiction writers dealing with Appalachia today. The stories are ripe with awareness, characters, turning plots. Edited by Larry Smith and Charles Dodd White. Authors include: Meredith Sue Willis, David Joy, Marie Manilla, Matt Brock, Darnell Arnoult, Mesha Maren, Taylor Brown, Jacinda Townsend, Carrie Mullins, Charles Dodd White, Jon Sealy, Savannah Sipple, Rusty Barnes, Mark Powell, Chris Holbrook, Chris Offut