The Hinterlands: A Mountain Tale in Three Parts

by Robert Morgan

Overview

This is the story of a family who found, marked, and paved their way into America's eastern frontier. Unfolding in the voices of three generations of mountaineer storytellers specializing in keeping listeners on the edges of their seats, this is fiction that plunks us down right into the thick of pioneer life. Using his own family stories as his inspiration, Robert Morgan has crafted a riveting folk history alive with adventure. Morgan's three gifted storytellers tell it like it was--with a vengeance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616202163
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	367
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Robert Morgan is the bestselling author of numerous works of fiction—including the Oprah Book Club selection Gap Creek—and non-fiction, and is also an established poet with fourteen collections to his credit. Born in Hendersonville, NC, he teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he is Kappa Alpha Professor of English.

Editorial Reviews

In words plain and deep as the hills, Morgan tells a three-part tale about the Blue Ridge Mountains, covering a period from 1771 to 1845. He binds these tales into a richly textured family saga. An early settler leads his teenage bride into the mountains in search of the new frontier of Kentucky. An aging Petal Richards spins endless yarns to her grandchildren about the explorations of these gritty pioneers. In part two, Solomon, Petal's grandson, builds the first road through the forest. Solomon's son, David, builds the first mountain-to-mountain turnpike in 1845, costing the traveler in a wagon a dollar. David recalls trapping animals in the woods, confronting the Cherokee unarmed, and blasting solid rock with black powder to build roads. Rich in character and detail, this novel forebodes as well the ecological changes that civilization has brought to our wilderness.

Theresa Ducato