Serena

In 1929, newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton arrive in the mountains of North Carolina to run a timber empire. Serena proves the more ruthless of the two, a woman of staggering ambition who works beside the men, trains an eagle to kill the rattlesnakes threatening her crews, and methodically removes every obstacle between her and total control, including a local woman carrying George's child. As the logging operation strips the land and the workers, Rash weaves a Greek-and-Macbeth-shaded tragedy narrated in part by a chorus of loggers who watch the Pembertons consume everything around them. The book is dark Appalachian noir built on the bones of the early extraction economy.