Country
Published on 12. September 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
418 pages
978-1-59021-240-0 (ISBN)
Description
Brice Brown sings about loyalty, broken hearts, and the earnestness of being a proud Southerner. Yet, his popular country music lyrics are misdirected because Brice has kept his attraction to men hidden all his life. But when a former lover--and band member--goes to the press with the truth, Brice finds himself sick of all the lies and returns to the sanctuary of his West Virginian hometown. The neighbors who used to be proud of the "local boy made good" turn on him. His record label cancels contracts, his wife files for divorce, and he finds himself disgraced and despondent.
But then Brice learns from a fan that there is a compound in central West Virginia run by a man who has helped troubled gay youth overcome their self-loathing. Brice takes a chance at redemption and finds the retreat in the woods. Only a few years older than Brice, the owner is a kind-hearted soul who does not turn him away. He offers a friendly ear and comforting words. Conway Twitty once said, "Listen to advice, but follow your heart." The man's nephew, Lucas, who serves as the handyman at the compound, is a tempting young man, simmering with resentment at his past, angry at how he sees his future will be. Brice thinks Lucas is attracted to him, but both men are hurting. Can they rise above the condemnations the world has given them and find something meaningful...together?
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
675 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59021-240-0 (9781590212400)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jeff Mann grew up in Covington, Virginia, and Hinton, West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and forestry from West Virginia University. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including Arts and Letters, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Willow Springs, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, and Appalachian Heritage. He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex; five full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology, A Romantic Mann, and Rebels; two collections of personal essays, Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear and Binding the God: Ursine Essays from the Mountain South; three novellas, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire,Camp Allegheny, included in History's Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall, and The Saga of Einar and Gisli, included in On the Run: Tales of Gay Pursuit and Passion; five novels, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal, which won the Pauline Réage Novel Award, Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War, which won a Rainbow Award, Cub, Country, and Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, which won both a Lambda Literary Award and the Pauline Réage Novel Award; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and three volumes of short fiction, Desire and Devour: Stories of Blood and Sweat, Consent: Bondage Tales, and A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award. In 2013, he was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.