Praise for The Saints of Swallow Hill “The distinctive setting of the turpentine camps in the South during the Great Depression will make an imprint on readers, just as the characters of Rae Lynn and Del do. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen won't be able to put it down.” — Booklist Praise for Donna Everhart's Southern Fiction "Rousing...movingly explores Jessie's struggle with her eating disorder, viscerally describing her twin desires for nourishment and purging in relation to a deep need to define herself...Everhart's story of self-discovery, rife with colorful characters and a satisfying twist, will thrill readers." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW for The Moonshiner's Daughter "This riveting novel set in the 1960s will have readers, especially those who enjoy Kaye Gibbons and Anna Jean Mayhew, captivated from the first page." — Booklist, STARRED REVIEW for The Moonshiner's Daughter "Highly engaging and fast-paced with well-drawn out characters...the glimpse into this landscape and the moonshining underground is equal parts eye-opening and fascinating. Everhart handles Jessie's eating disorder with grace and compassion. The book also explores family loyalty and legacy. There's a lot to digest, and all of it makes for a compelling reading experience." — The Historical Novels Review on The Moonshiner's Daughter "Reminiscent of the novels of Lee Smith, Kaye Gibbons, and Sandra Dallas, Everhart builds a firm sense of place, portraying the tiredness and hope of a dry southern summer and voicing strong southern women." — Booklist on The Forgiving Kind "Set in 1950s North Carolina, this touching and fearless novel is a coming-of-age story about a young heroine determined to survive and pursue justice out of love for her family." — She Reads on The Forgiving Kind "This story of survival and perseverance is heartbreaking and hard, but the ways the characters in the book choose family and hope lead them on paths they would never expect. Laci brings a bright spot to the family when she uses her fiddle to express her deeper thoughts and feelings while adding a magical component to the family's singing group, The Stampers...Everhart creates a signature style by writing in the voice of the main character, a young Southern girl, telling the story from her perspective. Her voice remains true throughout the novel, successfully engaging the reader." — The Missourian on The Road to Bittersweet "Everhart is a good storyteller and makes her characters and their experiences come alive." — Booklist on The Road to Bittersweet "An adventure story and coming-of-age story wrapped into one satisfying package... Donna Everhart skillfully evokes a harsh landscape and harsh times, squarely placing the reader in Appalachia right along with the family. Wallis Ann's complicated relationship with her sister is well explored and serves as a catalyst for her growth into a mature young woman." — Historical Novels Review on The Road to Bittersweet "With gravitas and heart...Donna Everhart does a deft job of writing about innocence lost." — Business Insider , Insider Pick for The Education of Dixie Dupree "This is a dark, haunting book that will linger with you for days, but despite the heaviness of the book, Dixie is a witty, charismatic burst of energy and sunshine who readers will want to rescue themselves. A remarkable story of the triumph of will, and a great coming-of-age novel." — Historical Novels Review on The Education of Dixie Dupree "[A] harrowing coming-of-age novel set in Alabama...Readers will be drawn to Dixie, who is full of spunk and grit." — Booklist on The Education of Dixie Dupree “Please open your heart to Dixie Dupree. With unflinching honesty and a voice that rings with authenticity, she survives the unthinkable. Her story celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit and the triumph of the imagination. An important novel, beautifully written, this is a story to cherish.” — Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author on The Education of Dixie Dupree “Young Dixie Dupree is an indomitable spirit in this coming-of-age novel that is a heartbreaking and honest witness to the resilience of human nature and the fighting spirit and courage residing in all of us.” — The Huffington Post on The Education of Dixie Dupree “In a powerful coming‑of‑age story that pitches southern charm against dark family secrets, the voice of 11‑year‑old Dixie Dupree captivates from the first page to the last.” — Barbara Claypole White, bestselling author of The Perfect Son on The Education of Dixie Dupree Donna Everhart is the USA Today bestselling author of Southern fiction with authenticity and grit, including The Saints of Swallow Hill, the Indie Next List selection The Education of Dixie Dupree, The Forgiving Kind, The Moonshiner's Daughter , and the Southeastern Library Association Award-winning novel, The Road to Bittersweet . Born and raised in Raleigh, she has lived close to her hometown for much of her life and now resides with her husband just an hour away in Dunn, North Carolina. Visit Donna Everhart online at DonnaEverhart.com.
Features & Highlights
Where the Crawdads Sing
meets
The Four Winds
as award-winning author Donna Everhart's latest novel immerses readers in its unique setting—the turpentine camps and pine forests of the American South during the Great Depression. This captivating story of friendship, survival, and three vagabonds' intersecting lives will stay with readers long after turning the final page.
It takes courage to save yourself...
In the dense pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners labor, hacking into tree trunks to draw out the sticky sap that gives the Tar Heel State its nickname, and hauling the resin to stills to be refined. Among them is Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband, Warren, who run a small turpentine farm together.Though the work is hard and often dangerous, Rae Lynn, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, is thankful for it--and for her kind if careless husband. When Warren falls victim to his own negligence, Rae Lynn undertakes a desperate act of mercy. To keep herself from jail, she disguises herself as a man named "Ray" and heads to the only place she can think of that might offer anonymity--a turpentine camp in Georgia named Swallow Hill.Swallow Hill is no easy haven. The camp is isolated and squalid, and commissary owner Otis Riddle takes out his frustrations on his browbeaten wife, Cornelia. Although Rae Lynn works tirelessly, she becomes a target for Crow, the ever-watchful woods rider who checks each laborer's tally. Delwood Reese, who's come to Swallow Hill hoping for his own redemption, offers "Ray" a small measure of protection, and is determined to improve their conditions. As Rae Lynn forges a deeper friendship with both Del and Cornelia, she begins to envision a path out of the camp. But she will have to come to terms with her past, with all its pain and beauty, before she can open herself to a new life and seize the chance to begin again.
“Fans of Sarah Addison Allen won't be able to put it down.”
—Booklist
Customer Reviews
Rating Breakdown
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Most Helpful Reviews
★★★★★
1.0
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Too much sex and too little depth
I enjoy reading Southern historical fiction novels.
This book begins and continues on with too much sex and verbal and physical abuse of women. It is an ongoing depressing negative story that suddenly twists into a home sweet home finale at the end. It just doesn't fit.
25 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Great Depression HF
Something about winter makes me crave reading historical fiction!
This book takes place in North Carolina during the Great Depression. Del is down on his luck when he starts working at a labor camp. He works to collect pine gum (used to make turpentine) when he meet Ray Cobb. Rae Lynn is actually pretending to be Ray and is also hired to work. She is hiding from the death of her husband. Del and Ray form a friendship that’s needed to get through the grueling days and they work together to improve the working conditions.
This book was absolutely wonderful. I have to say I learned a lot about how to make turpentine and what it’s used for! It’s appalling what Del and Ray had to put up with and they never made any money because they owed it all back to the camp. The tenacity that both characters was incredible. Even though the subject was heavy, the story was beautiful. I really enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to reading more from the author.
This book is perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah’s the Four Winds!
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
4.0
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"...historical fiction at its best."
As the hardships of The Great Depression emerged, the people of the hills of North Carolina buckled down to make ends meet. For many families, this meant grueling days of chipping away at the trees of those hills to produce the sap that helped drive the turpentine industry. It is among these hills that we are introduced to young Rae Lynn Cobb. Rae Lynn has always been a bit aloof, but she's settled into life with her husband Warren. He's a bit older than the kind of man she imagined she would end up with, but he cares for her nonetheless.
The couple has made a go at their own turpentine endeavor, a life that is as difficult as it is dangerous. It is after years of labor that an act of negligence sees Warren gravely injured. In those final hours, he begs for mercy, and Rae Lynn obliges. There's only one problem, she has no way to prove that ending her husband's life was an act of mercy and not something more nefarious. Desperate to avoid jail, she chops off her hair, disguises herself as a man named Ray, and sets out to work in a turpentine camp in Georgia.
Delwood Reese has set out to escape some problems of his own. Swallow Hill, a turpentine camp in Georgia, is just about as far away from those troubles as he can get. His experience in the field nets him a job there. The conditions are harsh, and the lodging is meager, but Del is at peace with the place. He encounters a slight young man named Ray, who is far from adequate at meeting his daily quotas. There is something about the man that Del is drawn to, and he soon becomes his protector, shielding Ray from the worst consequences of his inadequate work. As Del earns the trust of the camp's owner, he begins to envision changes to make life in Swallow Hill better.
I'm rarely drawn to historical fiction as a genre, but when I do read it, I want to be transported to the time and place that it depicts. In The Saints of Swallow Hill, Donna Everhart plants her readers amongst the grit and dust of laboring in the turpentine fields. She inhabits this history with characters who are richly drawn in a way that connects the reader to them and the era they live in. Amongst commentary on gender roles, relationships, and racism, Everhart crafts a narrative that speaks to the power of finding your own voice, standing for what you believe in, and learning to trust yourself and others. Once I was firmly planted in the world that Everhart created, I didn't want to leave. Simply put The Saints of Swallow Hill is historical fiction at its best.
1 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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Still not sure who the "Saints" were...??
Too slow to hold my interest.
Some mild, not-quite-spoilers ahead.
The writing was decent, and I think with a thicker plot, I would have enjoyed this one a little more. But there just wasn't enough action/drama(/romance...??) to keep me interested. Yes, it definitely seemed like this was heading into romance territory pretty early on and I had to brace myself (because that's usually not the type of book I pick up), but, remarkably, it never quite happened. The two main characters (the chapters alternate between their viewpoints) were obviously destined to interconnect and eventually end up together (this is pretty evident from almost the start of the book and the reader will infer this pretty quickly), however, it literally takes the entire book for them (well, at least one of them) to realize this!! I had already begrudgingly acknowledged that I was reading a romantic novel, but I became increasingly frustrated as the romance never came! It was like a cat and mouse game, the author dangling the promise of a relationship between these two characters, but it never reaches fruition (well, it does, but only in the last couple of chapters). Rae Lynn's excessive preoccupation with her dead first husband is an absolute buzzkill and pops up at every turn, thwarting any moves poor, flaccid Del tries. I was passively hoping he would just move on and forget about her. The most drama we are treated to is Del's unexpected and miraculous ...awakening... and I'm not talking about his near-death experience (which gets retold one too many times). Neither character was really all that intriguing (they were both pretty annoying from the onset really) and the ending is as predictable and bland as you can imagine. Also, more info or backstory on turpentining would have been appreciated, especially in the beginning of the story. Turpentining is at the center of the story, but we never really get any direct info on what it is, or how it's done, or it's general importance (except for the very end when the kids are being instructed on the process).
1 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A compelling and eye-opening historical fiction!
Donna Everhart does it again; telling a gripping tale of a little known part of history. You will know what survival means; feeling the characters' determination as they struggle to manage the lives they have been given. The story grabs you from the beginning and draws you in completely as the tale builds. The vivid scenes take you to 1930s North Carolina and Georgia. The chilling descriptions of the horrible conditions and suffering endured, will give you such heartache; being shocked that a person can treat another to this extent.
Rea Lynn has had plenty of hardships in her life. But, when things spiral down quickly; to survive, she needs to take drastic measures. She decides the only way, is to disguise herself as a man; traveling from North Carolina to a turpentine camp in Georgia for work. Swallow Hill Camp is ruthless, dirty and definitely not a place for a woman to dwell. But, she finds friendship, making the camp a little more bearable.
Thankee kindly, Donna Everhart, for digging deep into your research and sharing your gift of writing! Even though history will never tell the whole story, this tale has given readers an incredible history lesson. This historical fiction novel is so compelling and eye-opening; it needs to read by all. “The Saints of Swallow Hill” is a story that will stay with me for a very long time.
1 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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You can’t put it down!
This is an absolutely wonderful book! I read it in 3 days. I enjoyed reading about the way life was during the depression and how people struggled to get by. All of the characters are so well described you can see them. Highly recommend!!
★★★★★
5.0
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Heart wrenching and uplifting
This was a difficult story to read. It’s filled with desperate people trying to eek out a living in the Depression Era South. Times are hard and people are even harder, with the Haves determined to keep the Have Nots downtrodden as a source of cheap labor.
Swallow Hill is a turpentine camp where men work grueling hours at the filthy and dangerous task of tapping the sap of pine trees to be converted to turpentine. The employees are paid in scrips to be used at the camp commissary. Unfortunately, the pay is never quite equal to what the commissary owner, Otis, charges for his goods, and the men are soon swallowed up in debt and beholden to their employer for everything. Add to this depressing equation a sadistic woods rider named Crow, who enjoys beating and torturing the black workers and anyone foolish enough to empathize with them.
Del is a transient farm worker who can’t seem to stay away from the wives of the men he works with, or the boss man’s either. After being caught with the farm owner’s wife, Del is forced to move on and find employment elsewhere.
Rae Lynn is an orphan who meets and marries a man who has a small turpentine operation of his own. Warren is a terrible businessman and soon can’t find workers who are willing to risk injury or death due to his callousness. While trying to pack up his resin to take to market, Warren is severely injured. Stubborn to the end, he refuses medical treatment and Rae Lynn watches him fade away. He begs her for a last act of mercy which places her in jeopardy with the law. She must leave the farm she loves and try to make her way in a harsh world.
Both Del and Rae Lynn, now calling herself Ray, find themselves at Swallow Hill. Crow takes an immediate dislike to both of them and is determined to do whatever he can to destroy them. When Crow’s plot to murder Ray backfires, Del, Rae Lynn, and Cornelia, the wife of Otis, decide they must flee Swallow Hill and find a better life elsewhere.
The book is rich in details of the depression and the people who struggled to survive in a hostile and uncaring society. It was difficult reading about the ignorance and cruelty rampant in the camps. Not an easy read, but an important story to be told.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
★★★★★
3.0
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Decent read-well researched
After a terrifying near death experience working on a ranch Delwood Reese is looking for redemption, a way to right the wrongs. He travels to a turpentine camp and asks to work on the trees, though the task itself is not usually assigned to white men, they decide to allow it. At first Del is looked at with suspicion but soon he holds his own and the other’s accept him in turn, all except the woodsman named Crow.
Like Del, Rae Lynn has also arrived to the same turpentine camp looking for redemption but for very different reasons. She disguises herself as a man named “Ray”, and begins work in the trees as well. Though the work is tiresome she tries to stick with it but her inability to produce results soon gets the attention of the same woodsman. The will for atonement is what separately guides both Del and Rae Lynn but fate has a way of bringing people together.
Set during the Great Depression, an interesting read-as I was unfamiliar of this in time history but unfortunately the story itself just didn’t seem to connect well and was somewhat long winded. I will say that I enjoyed the character Del and his journey through absolution. I also appreciated the information on the plight of black people and their contribution to the account. I just wish the story had more to it and other characters were given the same spotlight. All in all, it’s a decent read, however not a favorite.
★★★★★
5.0
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5 Stars
The Saints of Swallow Hill by D. Everhart, published by Kensington Books, is a beautiful stand-alone.
Set in the deep south of the US in time of great depression it's an emotional read, complex, heart-warming, creativ with beautiful characters and details, a historical fiction.
I greatly enjoyed reading this outstanding book, loved every minute of it.
★★★★★
4.0
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A Gut-Wrenching Depression-Era Historical Fiction Drama
SUMMARY
Rae Lynn Cobb and her older husband, Warren, run a small turpentine farm in North Carolina. The work is challenging, and when Warren is hurt, Rae Lynn performs a desperate act of mercy. To escape a no-win situation, she disguises herself as a man and heads to the isolated Swallow Hill turpentine camp outside Valdosta, Georgia. The work is even more arduous than expected. There she makes friends with Del Reese, who is also escaping an untenable situation and who tries his best to help Rae Lynn. Despite working tirelessly, Rae Lynn cannot meet quotas, and her vile boss targets her. After a particularly harsh punishment, Cornelia, wife of the heartless commissary owner, offers assistance and friendship.
Rae Lynn, Cornelia, and Del each have different reasons for wanting to leave Swallow Hill. But before they can move forward, they must all come to terms with their past.
REVIEW
The Saints of Swallow Hill is a gut-wrenching depression-era historical fiction novel set in the pine forests of Georgia and North Carolina. Times are hard, and the writing is descriptive and atmospheric. It awakens your senses to the hardships and difficulties the characters face, as well as the beauty of the pine forest as the breeze, blows the needles of the longleaf pine trees.
Author Donna Everhart has woven an intriguing Southern tale complete with hard times, evil, and racism. Several characters in the book are despicable. But all three of the notable characters, Rae Lynn, Del, and Cornelia, show the strength, courage, and determination that carries the novel.
Everhart describes her books as Southern novels with authenticity and grit. This book certainly fits that description. She has written four additional novels, most recently including The Moonshiner's Daughter and The Forgiving Kind.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book.
