Bloodroot is told in a kaleidoscope of voices and centers around an incendiary romance that consumes everyone in its path: Myra Lamb, a wild young girl with mysterious, haint blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain; her grandmother Byrdie Lamb, who protects Myra fiercely and passes down “the touch” that bewitches people and animals alike; the neighbor boy who longs for Myra yet is destined never to have her; the twin children Myra is forced to abandon but who never forget their mother’s deep love; and John Odom, the man who tries to tame Myra and meets with shocking, violent disaster.
"This stunning debut novel is a triumph of voice and setting. Following one family from the Depression up through the present, the story is...set in a remote region called Bloodroot Mountain, so named for the rare flower that grows there, which can both poison and heal. The family\'s struggles with poverty and human cruelty and their search for connection are set against the majestic Appalachian landscape, which is evoked in the simplest and most beautiful language.... With a style as elegant as southern novelist Lee Smith\'s and a story as affecting as The Color Purple, this debut offers stirring testimony to the resilience of the human spirit." —Booklist (starred)
