Someplace Like Home

Jenny Caudill grows up poor in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky, in a home that feels more like a trap, lost in romantic pop songs and daydreams in the back seat of her daddy's junked Bel Air. Her romantic notions lead her into an early marriage with Rob, a man who turns out to be controlling and abusive. The novel follows Jenny and her children, Charlie and Billy, as they endure his domestic violence and substance abuse, and as Jenny searches for a way out of the cycle she was raised inside. Drawn from the lives of the author's grandmother and mother, the book is a reflective portrait of generational trauma, hardship, and the possibility of healing in Appalachia.