Friday Freebie: The Cove by Ron Rash

Congratulations to Christine Norris, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Spectacle, short stories by Susan Steinberg.

This week's book giveaway is a new paperback copy of The Cove by Ron Rash, one of my favorite contemporary authors--based almost solely on the incredible novel Serena.  Janet Maslin praised The Cove in the New York Times by saying, “Mr. Rash’s writing is so richly atmospheric…[he] can make words take wing…. A breathless sequence of events lead the book to its devastating final sentence.  And that sentence affirms Mr. Rash’s reputation for writerly miracles.”  Here's a little more about his new novel, which is set during World War One....

Hank and Laurel Shelton live in a lonely Appalachian valley, on the same broken homestead where their parents toiled and died years before.  Locals shun Laurel for her witchy birthmark, and Hank struggles to maintain the farm without a hand he lost in the Great War.  When a mute stranger arrives, both (especially Laurel) allow themselves hope for a future outside the cove, away from small-town superstition and wartime fervor.  But whose skull is that in the well?  In the lyrical prose that won him such acclaim with Serena, Ron Rash washes this novel's languid spaces with bucketfuls of atmospheric dread, pushing his characters into the currents of their fate with determined empathy.  Murky and deliberate, The Cove solidifies Rash as master of modern Southern Gothic

If you'd like a chance at winning The Cove, all you have to do is email your name and mailing address to thequiveringpen@gmail.com

Put FRIDAY FREEBIE in the e-mail subject line.  One entry per person, please.  Despite its name, the Friday Freebie runs all week long and remains open to entries until midnight on Jan. 24—at which time I'll draw the winning name.  I'll announce the lucky reader on Jan. 25.  If you'd like to join the mailing list for the once-a-week Quivering Pen newsletter, simply add the words "Sign me up for the newsletter" in the body of your email.  Your email address and other personal information will never be sold or given to a third party (except in those instances where the publisher requires a mailing address for sending Friday Freebie winners copies of the book).

Want to double your odds of winning?  Get an extra entry in the contest by posting a link to this webpage on your blog, your Facebook wall or by tweeting it on Twitter.  Once you've done any of those things, send me an additional e-mail saying "I've shared" and I'll put your name in the hat twice.