Getting to Know Wiley Cash
It’s always fun to see a book by a new author begin to take off, but even more so when you’ve had a chance to meet that author. Many of you joined us for a chat last week with Wiley Cash about his debut, A Land More Kind Than Home, (Harper). Several great things have happened for the book since then. It landed on the NYT Hardcover Fiction extended list at #33 in it’s first week on sale and Barnes and Noble just announced that it is one of their Discover Great New Writers Summer picks.
In conjunction, the Barnes & Noble Review ran an interview with the author. He was, of course, thoughtful and charming, but we’re partial to how well he used just 140 characters during our TwitterChat.
The author describes his book:
The novel tells the story of the bond between two young brothers and the evil they face in a small town in the mountains of N.C.
…which brought this response from a librarian:
That description just put it on my TBR list!
On the two brothers:
Kids do know and intuit a lot of things we don’t realize; Only diff is kids don’t know how to respond to that knowledge.
On the title (which comes from the last line in Thomas Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again):
The title hints at something beyond the present that awaits us, some kind of place that is more suited to who we are or want to be.
On the importance of North Carolina as the setting:
I’m a writer of place & a reader of place. It’s the most important thing in my life. I wrote LAND to recreate the place I love.
I love works w/setting as character: Winesburg OH, Their Eyes, Look Homeward Angel. Characters coming from a PLACE are fascinating.
I really wanted to take the reader there & have all the senses touched. W. NC is such a visceral place.
The thrill of seeing your book in a library:
My mom just sent me a text pic of my book in the library in Oak Island NC. God bless writers’ moms.
Seeing it all wrapped up in the library with a call number: that’s real.
Thanks to the library marketing team at HarperCollins for sponsoring the chat and for making Advance Readers copies available to many EarlyWord readers.