"What the Red Oak Saw" is a breathtaking and immersive journey.
Norton's care for her characters, her insights on both the strength and fragility of family, and her shimmering prose, amount to a wonderfully rich novel.
Rebeca Kauffman,
author of "I'll Come to You."
A beautiful book, well written, that tells the intergenerational story of a family that immigrated from Ireland and settled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
The reader follows one generation after another through the Civil War, through birth and death and through the forced move from the mountains to make way for the Shenandoah National Park.
I felt very close to the family as I read for this review. It is a must-read for those interested in the history of those families relocated from the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Peggy Ann Shifflett Appalachian historian and author of Red Flannel Rag: Memories of an Appalachian Childhood and Mountain Women Live On.
READER REVIEWS
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Starting from scratch
Five generations forge a path from famine-devastated Ireland to prosperity in America. Relying on farming, hard work and a connection to the spiritual, family leaders at each generation have crises to solve and hard decisions to make.
Photo courtesy of Allen Litten
War, loss and holding on as a family
Mountain life, illness, and injury are bookended by the ruptures of wars. This is the story of how history and the character of each generation interact.
Photo courtesy of Allen Litten
A treasured way of life is threatened
Life in the peaceful Blue Ridge is upended by the state’s plan to seize farmland, evict families, and build the Shenandoah National Park. A new kind of crisis for the family. And they are not alone.
On their land the ancient red oak watches and waits. How does nature find a way when modern life comes calling?
