Appalachia is full of ghosts. I ought to know; I am one of them. My story was already written before I ever drew breath one cold Kentucky morning in the Emerita Coal Mining Camp on the eve of the Great Depression. How come I was in my grave by my 10th birthday takes some telling.

The hills and hollers of Appalachia can swallow a man, let alone a girl like Bud Grace. Born the daughter of coal miner and funeralizing preacher Mournful Grace, her life is her father's story. The Bloody Harlan County Coal Wars are just getting cranked up. Appalachia's natural world is under assault by...