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The Road from Gap Creek: Book summary and reviews of The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

The Road from Gap Creek

by Robert Morgan

The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan X
The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
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  • Published Aug 2013
    336 pages
    Genre: Historical Fiction

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Book Summary

When Robert Morgan's novel Gap Creek was published in 1999, it became an Oprah Book Club Selection and an instant national bestseller, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers to its story of a marriage begun with love and hope at the turn of the twentieth century. Set in the Appalachian South, it followed Julie and Hank Richards as they struggled through the first year and a half of their union.

But what, readers asked, of the years that followed? What did the future hold for these memorable characters?

The Road from Gap Creek holds the answers to these questions, as Robert Morgan takes us back into their lives, telling their story and the stories of their children through the eyes of their youngest daughter, Annie. Through Annie, we watch as the four Richards children create their own histories, lives that include both triumphs and hardship in the face of the Great Depression and then World War II. Much more than a sequel, The Road from Gap Creek is a moving and indelible portrait of people and their world in a time of unprecedented change, an American story told by one of our country's most acclaimed writers. 

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Robert Morgan returns to his bestselling Gap Creek characters, the Richards family, as well as the Peace family from his earlier Appalachian story, The Truest Pleasure." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Morgan pens an eloquent story of stoicism and pain, endurance and courage, ending as all life will, with death and birth. A moving, lyrical saga from a time so distant, yet so near." - Kirkus

"In The Road From Gap Creek [Morgan] delivers another powerhouse novel of his people, with their virtues and failings, wins and losses, loves and sorrows." - Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

This information about The Road from Gap Creek was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cathryn Conroy

A Story of Family Love and Survival
This sequel to "Gap Creek" tells the story of Julie and Hank's marriage years after they moved away from Gap Creek. They are now the parents of four grown (or nearly grown) children, and the life they live is based in large part on what they can raise and grow on their farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Taking place in the 1920s and '30s, the story of this one family serves a microcosm of the larger events taking place in the country and the world—from the booming '20s to deadly epidemics, from the Depression to World War II. While they are dirt poor, they are rich in love, and that is what makes this story just bloom.

Writing in the vernacular of the time and place, author Robert Morgan has created a tale that rings true and authentic.

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Author Information

Robert Morgan Author Biography

Robert Morgan was raised on his family's farm in the North Carolina mountains. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, three books of nonfiction, and eight books of fiction, including the bestselling novel Gap Creek. He lives in Ithaca, New York, where he teaches at Cornell University. He won the Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature in 2007.

Author Interview
Link to Robert Morgan's Website

Other books by Robert Morgan at BookBrowse
  • Gap Creek jacket
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