My Name is Yip

For readers of Charles Portis and Cormac McCarthy, My Name Is Yip is a bold, revisionist take on the Western novel set in the Georgia gold rush, by a powerful debut novelist with an original voice.  It's 1815 in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, when Yip Tolroy--mute, medical anomaly, and social outcast--is born. His father has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, so he is raised by his mother: a powerful, troubled, independent woman who owns and runs a general store. She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. With the help of a retired doctor, he begins to transform his life by learning to read and write, his portal into the community a piece of slate and a supply of chalk.  And then at the age of 15, Yip's life is altered irrevocably. In the space of a few days, he witnesses the discovery of gold, meets his faithful friend and comrade, Dud Carter, and commits a grievous crime. Thrust unw