Nothing Gold Can Stay: Book summary and reviews of Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash

Nothing Gold Can Stay Summary

From Ron Rash, PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Serena, comes a new collection of unforgettable stories set in Appalachia that focuses on the lives of those haunted by violence and tenderness, hope and fear - spanning the Civil War to the present day. 

The darkness of Ron Rash's work contrasts with its unexpected sensitivity and stark beauty in a manner that could only be accomplished by this master of the short story form.

Nothing Gold Can Stay includes 14 stories, including Rash's "The Trusty," which first appeared in The New Yorker.

Nothing Gold Can Stay Reviews

"Starred Review. Violence-streaked stories that comprise another fine collection from Rash…his oneness with the region and its people makes an indelible impression." - Kirkus

"Rash impresses with clear-eyed, sympathetic writing about flawed and troubled characters." - Publishers Weekly

"Rash's short stories thematically paint Appalachia not as a definitive place but as a series of many interconnected ways of relating to human and environmental frailty. Another fine addition to the Rash bibliography, and a great entry point for the uninitiated reader." - Library Journal

The information about Nothing Gold Can Stay shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's online-magazine that keeps our members abreast of notable and high-profile books publishing in the coming weeks. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.

Nothing Gold Can Stay Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Rated of 5 by Diane S.
Nothing Gold can stay
These stories have such a strong atmosphere of the Appalachians, which is of course what Rash is best noted for. I wasn't sure if his stories would follow the same path of his novels, his brutal honesty in his treatment of his characters and his at times rather violent twists. One has to think when reading these stories, he leaves much out and never sets the reader on a clear path. Some of them do not have definitive endings and it is up to the readers interpretation to figure out what happened or will happen. These are different and though there is some humor I would not say these stories are read for fun, they are read for a great sense of time and place, interesting characters that can alternately be both victim and villain. They are read because Rash is just plain good.

Ron Rash Author Biography

Ron Rash was born in Chester, South Carolina, in 1953, grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University and Clemson University. In 1994 he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth. Since then, Rash has published four collections of poetry, three short story collections, and five novels, all to wide critical acclaim and several awards and honors. Rash's poems and stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and journals over the years. With each new book, Rash has confirmed his position as a central and significant Appalachian writer alongside well-established names like Fred Chappell, Lee Smith, and Robert Morgan.

In 1996, Rash won the Sherwood Anderson Prize, a...

... Full Biography
Author Interview

Other books by Ron Rash at BookBrowse