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THE LAST BALLAD
Wiley Cash's new novel is set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events. The chronicle of an ordinary woman's struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, THE LAST BALLAD is a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice, with the emotional power of Ron Rash's Serena, Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, and the unforgettable films Norma Rae and Silkwood.
Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's ownersthe newly arrived Goldberg brotherswhite but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.
When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county's biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movementa decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her townindeed all that she loves.
Seventy-five years later, Ella May's daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the tragedy that befell Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.
Wiley Cash is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME and the acclaimed THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY. He won the 2014 Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel from the UK's Crime Writer's Association and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and has been nominated for many more awards. A native of North Carolina, he has held residency positions at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and is a writer in residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's ownersthe newly arrived Goldberg brotherswhite but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.
When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the mill owners, backed by other nefarious forces, claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power, including bloodshed, to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county's biggest rally, Ella May, weighing the costs of her choice, makes up her mind to join the movementa decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends, her townindeed all that she loves.
Seventy-five years later, Ella May's daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family. Illuminating the most painful corners of their history, she reveals, for the first time, the tragedy that befell Ella May after that fateful union meeting in 1929.
Wiley Cash is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME and the acclaimed THIS DARK ROAD TO MERCY. He won the 2014 Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel from the UK's Crime Writer's Association and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and has been nominated for many more awards. A native of North Carolina, he has held residency positions at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and is a writer in residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
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Published 2017-10-01 by William Morrow |