Stained-Glass Curtain

When Robert Martin’s wife, Angie, dies of breast cancer after thirty-four years of marriage, he attempts his lifelong dream—that of hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. His constant companions are grief and memories.

On the trail, with a nickname of Dances with Snakes—Snaky for short—he meets a variety of other hikers. Socrates is a Duke graduate and know-it-all scientist; Preacher is a fervid Christian fundamentalist and proselytizer; Southern Bell is an Alabama veterinarian...