The Well String

In an Appalachia both dark and light, a place described by poet Noel Smith as "this soft country of tough harvests," the reader comes to know a cast of vivid characters. THE WELL STRING is not only a poetry collection, but a novel in poems - focusing on one fictional family over a span of more than 100 years. Novelist Silas House, in the book's foreword, calls THE WELL STRING "a journey of wonders," "a powerful book," and "a gift." House adds, "Many of the characters in THE WELL STRING are so haunting that we might never forget them," noting that Smith also "captures the natural world, which she knows has 'always the song of the Redbird, like a silver drop.'" Novelist Lee Smith describes THE WELL STRING as "highly charged with intensity and originality, yet oddly familiar somehow, as if it has actually happened to us." Poet and novelist Ron Rash calls the book "vividly rendered ... excellent" and "utterly convincing," concluding that "THE WELL STRING is a significant contribution to Appalachian Literature."(www.MotesBooks.com)