Look Back All the Green Valley A Novel [Paperback]

A Southeast Booksellers Association Best Book of the Year

Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town of his boyhood to tend to his ailing mother, and clean out his deceased father's workroom. What he discovers there leads himand the readeron an unforgettable journey through the secret life of Jess's father, Joe Robert, which culminates in a moment of profound mystery and comedy.

Fred Chappell's narrative voice is a wonder and a joy--a combination of elegant erudition, lyric brilliance, and the idiom of Appalachia . . . Both a celebration of the southern Appalachian Mountains and a way of life and a lamentation for its loss . . . A master storyteller . . . ranging from tall tales that provide out-loud laughter to poetic, lyric passages that produce a lump in the throat. The Miami Herald

What a glorious time Fred Chappell must have had writing this fourth volume of his tetralogy . . . for it sparkles and amuses and rocks along in such an easy, happy voice . . . No one does a more impressive look back than Fred Chappell, our poet laureate. Winston-Salem Journal

A novel cycle destined to be cherished not just as a Southern, but as an American classic. Orlando Sentinel

Fans of Southern fiction should not miss this beautifully written novel. Chicago Tribune

A book sparkling with life and charm . . . A celebration of life's great moments. Christian Science Monitor

Delightful . . . We don't want to miss a single funny phrase, a charming old word, or a sudden twist of the tale, involving people we wish we knew. Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Fred Chappell crafts the kind of novels other writers greet with envy. A natural storyteller who hails from Appalachia, he weaves together tall tales, dreams and visions, and page upon page of pitch-perfect dialogue into a style that's like the white-lightnin'' cousin of magical realism. Atlanta Journalƒ'