Whisper Hollow

(Paperback)

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One morning in Verra, a town nestled into the hillsides of West Virginia, the young Myrthen Bergmann is playing tug-of-war with her twin, when her sister is killed. Unable to accept her own guilt, Myrthen excludes herself from all forms of friendship and affection and begins a twisted, haunted life dedicated to God. Meanwhile, her neighbour Alta Krol longs to be an artist even as her days are taken up caring for her widowed father and siblings. Everything changes when Myrthen marries the man Alta loves.

Reviews

Cander is a smart, deft storyteller.New York Times Book Review

Sometimes fiction is so good, so authentic, and the storyteller so convincing, that it just feels true.Whisper Hollowis one of those books. Im blown away, honestly. Chris Cander has created characters with immortal souls. Jamie Ford,New York Timesbestselling author ofHotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Like D. H. LawrencesSons and Lovers, Chris Canders beautiful novel,Whisper Hollow, is about love that finds its object, and love that misses its mark and becomes destructive, in a community of coal miners. The storys locale is one where love (for God, or others) is blocked or displaced until that moment when it can finally express itself, in a setting where work itself may be deadly and time may always run out. Chris Canders understanding of men and women is profound, and the scenes in this wonderful book will stay with you like a visionary experience. Charles Baxter, National Book Award Finalist

With memorable characters and a haunting setting, Chris Cander weaves a compelling tale of the transformative power of love in the face of buried truths that threaten literally to explode. Ann-Marie MacDonald, New York Times bestselling author ofThe Way the Crow Flies

A sweeping novelCander divinely delves into multiple points of view, crafting a collage of vibrant, layered characters. Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

Chris Cander weaves together the stories of varied characters across nearly five decades with skill and graceA memorable novel about the bonds of town and family, the strength of friendships in unlikely places. Shelf Awareness(starred review)

Chris Cander admirably captures the lack of choice that men and women have in rural West Virginia. Publishers Weekly

Cander superbly envisions the town, its residents dynamics, and the early twentieth-century immigrant experience. Alta and Lidia are well-developed, believable characters whose mental fortitude and capacity to love linger in the readers mind long after the last page. Booklist

Whisper Hollowis wonderful. Its carefully written, unpredictable, sexy when it should be and scary when it has to beIt channels Faulkner and is reminiscent of D.H. Lawrence.The Houston Chronicle

So masterfully controlled is the pace and tone ofWhisper Hollowthat you can swing a pickax without hitting any impurities. Rhythmic and beautiful,Whisper Hollowcollides Old Testament with sooty coal town Americana in steady harmony. Austin American-Statesman

[Whisper Hollow] is an exploration of well-realized characters, their motivations and their responses to circumstances, written with a literary bent. The Asheville Citizen-Times

Whisper Hollowis a haunting novel about the malleability of memory, about secrets and trickery, and about saints who are sinners and sinners who are saints. Cander paints a colorful portrait of a multi-ethnic, multi-generational West Virginia coal camp: a heaven of opportunity to some, a hell of stunted choices to others. Marie Manilla, author ofThe Patron Saint of Ugly

The men in Chris CandersWhisper Hollowtoil underground, in the dark and dangerous coal mines of West Virginia. But her women mine territory twice as dark and twice as dangerous, they mine the human heart. Love and loss, devotion and longing, hope and despair, Cander renders all of this and more through the lives of three women spanning more than fifty years. Here is a novel so full of lifeof its beauty and crueltythat I emerged from it like one of those men walking from mines she so wonderfully evokes, like a man walking from the darkness into the light. Peter Geye, author ofThe Lighthouse Road

Cander writes with tremendous power and originality.Whisper Hollowgrabs the reader with an immediacy that does not let go: this novel is inspired, haunting, and heartbreakingly beautiful. David Eagleman, author ofIncognitoandSUM: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

Author Bio

Chris Candergraduated from the Honors College at the University of Houston, in the city where she was raised and still lives, with her husband, daughter, and son. For seven years she has been a writer-in-residence for Writers in the Schools there. She serves on the Inprint advisory board and stewards several Little Free Libraries in her community. Her first novel,11 Stories, won the Independent Publisher Gold Medal for Popular Fiction.Whisper Hollowwas long-listed for the Great Santini Fiction Prize by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Her most recent novel,The Weight of the Piano, was aUSA Todaybestseller.