Used book – One Foot in Paradise (pb), Ron Rash

Oconee, a rural county in the Southern Appalachians, early 1950s. A former Cherokee land, about to be forever taken from its inhabitants: the Carolina Power electric company is gradually buying up all the land in the valley to build a reservoir, a huge lake that will cover farms and fields. Holland Winchester is dead, his mother is sure, as she hasn't seen him return at noon, but heard the gunshot at the neighbor's house. This dark and intense drama of jealousy and revenge takes the form of a five-voice narrative: Sheriff Alexander, the neighbor, his wife, their son, and the deputy. Faced with such a powerful and singular text, one thinks of Larry Brown and Cormac McCarthy, or even Giono. No less.

Rash impresses with his scorched pen: the accuracy of his portrayal, a perfect union of virility and raw sensitivity, immediately places his work among the best of its kind. Nicolas Ungemuth, Le Figaro magazine.