The Weight of This World by David Joy

David Joy is an exciting new voice in Appalachian literature. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, he attended Western Carolina University, and there found Ron Rash as a mentor, became enamored with the land and people of the area and settled in. His first book was Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman’s Journey, and his first novel was Where All Light Tends to Go. It caused quite a stir, with great reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere and became a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Joy’s new novel, The Weight of This World, has already garnered a starred review in Publishers Weekly which concludes, “Lyrical prose, realistic dialogue, and a story that illuminates the humanity of each character make this a standout.” Putnam and Son’s interviewed Joy about this book, and he set the stage this way: “This book is filled with moments of incredible brutality. Some readers won’t be able to take it, and that’s okay. That’s part of what I was trying to do, to play with that