The Secret Wisdom of the Earth Audiobook

Quotes

• “Christopher Scotton’s debut effort defies easy description. Contemplative one minute and racing the next, it swept me to the last page and left me there with a single thought: Atticus Finch meets Deliverance. Highly recommended.”

  — John Hart, New York Times bestselling author of Iron House

• “Christopher Scotton’s pulse-quickening debut that has elements of such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird and Deliverance...examines the animosities simmering in an impoverished coal-mining community caught between its ingrained traditions and threats from the outside world…Scotton tempers his Gothic tale with poignant insights into the crushing weight of loss. In prose as biting as Pops’ sour-mash whiskey, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth melds beguiling characters with an urgent ecological message.”

  — O, The Oprah Magazine

• “This earnest debut is part coming of age story, part tale of redemption, and part Greek myth played out in the holler…Scotton’s very earnestness, the obvious love he has for this particular bit of land, and the perfect ear for its youngsters’ dialogue (“She smiled at me and I almost lost breakfast”) make this novel his own. At once familiar and modern, it is always poetic and compelling.”

  — Amazon.com, editorial review

• “With the small-town aura of To Kill a Mockingbird, a man reflects on the summer he learned that tradition, greed, class, race, and sexual orientation can make for murder…Scotton offers literary observation—‘a storm was filling the trees with bursting light’—and a thoughtful appreciation of Appalachia’s hard-used people and fragile landscape. A powerful epic of people and place, loss and love, reconciliation and redemption.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• “The coming-of-age story is enriched by depictions of the earth’s healing and redemptive power. Neither the first portrait of mining country nor the most original, Scotton’s novel nonetheless makes for compelling reading when the action grows intense—managing, like the landscape it describes, to be simultaneously frightening and beautiful.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “Narrator Robert Petkoff’s expressive tones and sensitive cadence perfectly match the moods and rhythms of this stunning coming-of-age story…Petkoff’s distinct voices and smooth presentation keep listeners engaged with this remarkable audiobook. Highlights of his performance include a gentle, musing tone that flawlessly conveys the atmosphere of quiet evenings on the front porch and a quick, clipped delivery that captures Kevin’s fear of the violence that threatens to spill over. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

  — AudioFile