A mesmerizing novel about a father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian woods, and the secrets that haunt them. With a pitch-perfect atmosphere, unforgettable characters, a fierce father-daughter relationship, reminiscent of Hannah Tinti’s The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, and set against the pressure cooker of isolation, this is a heartrending and complex story of morality, loyalty, and sacrifice.
THESE SILENT WOODS
by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Minautor/St. Martin’s Press, October 2021
No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. Cooper and his eight-year-old daughter, Finch, live in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves, has learned the skills needed for survival in the woods, and she respects the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But lately she’s started to push back against the sheltered life they lead, has started to wander farther from home, has started to wonder what else is out there. But Cooper is haunted by the painful truth of what brought them to the cabin. And he can’t share with his daughter the secret he holds, the reason why they can never leave.
The only people who know they exist are Scotland, an overly friendly hermit with murky intentions, and Cooper’s old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn’t show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. When a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.
Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, THESE SILENT WOODS is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.
Early Praise for THESE SILENT WOODS:
“Gorgeously written, taut and compelling.” –John Hart, bestselling author of The Hush
“An exceptional novel, filled with vivid prose and surprising revelations of character.” –Ron Rash, bestselling author of Serena
“A beautifully rendered tale of guilt and grace.” –Laura McHugh, bestselling author of The Weight of Blood
Kimi Cunningham Grant is the two-time winner of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in creative non-fiction. She is the author of two previous books, Silver Like Dust (Pegasus Books, 2013), a memoir and Fallen Mountains (Amberjack Publishing, 2019) a literary mystery.
