Whisper Hollow: A Novel

Chris Cander

Mar 2015 · Other Press, LLC

About this ebook

“Cander is a smart, deft storyteller.” —New York Times Book Review

From the nationally bestselling author of The Weight of the Piano comes a novel that “like D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, is about love that finds its object, and love that misses its mark.” —Charles Baxter
 
Set in a small coal-mining town, a debut novel full of secrets, love, betrayal, and suspicious accidents, where Catholicism casts a long shadow and two courageous women make choices that will challenge our own moral convictions.
 
One morning in Verra, a town nestled into the hillsides of West Virginia, the young Myrthen Bergmann is playing tug-of-war with her twin, when her sister is killed. Unable to accept her own guilt, Myrthen excludes herself from all forms of friendship and affection and begins a twisted, haunted life dedicated to God.
 
Meanwhile, her neighbor Alta Krol longs to be an artist even as her days are taken up caring for her widowed father and siblings. Everything changes when Myrthen marries the man Alta loves. Fourteen years later, we meet Lidia, a teenage girl in the same town, and her precocious son, Gabriel. When Gabriel starts telling eerily prescient stories that hint at Verra’s long-buried secrets, it’s not long before the townspeople begin to suspect that the boy harbors evil spirits—an irresistible state of affairs for Myrthen and her obsession with salvation.

Ratings and reviews

When I decided to read this book, I was afraid that it wouldn't be accurate to the life of Southern WV coal families. I was delighted to find that the characters in the story were just like many I knew growing up and I appreciated the effort that was taken to help the characters come alive. Wonderful book, absolutely wonderful!

This was an easy read. I got a good feel for the characters and I wantrd to keep reading to see what happened next, although there weren't any huge twists or surprises. I was expecting more. But overall, it was a decent book

Its really boring

About the author

Chris Cander graduated from the Honors College at the University of Houston, in the city where she was raised and still lives, with her husband, daughter, and son. For seven years she has been a writer-in-residence for Writers in the Schools there. She serves on the Inprint advisory board and stewards several Little Free Libraries in her community. Her first novel, 11 Stories, won the Independent Publisher Gold Medal for Popular Fiction. Whisper Hollow was long-listed for the Great Santini Fiction Prize by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Her most recent novel, The Weight of the Piano, was a USA Today bestseller.