The Unsettling of America
Shiloh and Other Stories

Kinfolks

Kinfolks is a novelistic collection of short stories centered around Wilgus Collier, a young boy growing up in rural Kentucky during the 1940s and 1950s. The stories follow Wilgus from childhood into his early adulthood, exploring his relationships with his extended family and his Appalachian community. Gurney Norman introduces readers to Wilgus’s world through a series of vignettes that depict experiences with his family, particularly his parents and grandparents. These stories highlight the challenges and joys of rural life, offering a poignant look at complex family dynamics and the deep-rooted traditions of Appalachia. Throughout the book, Norman’s writing is characterized by its rich, evocative descriptions of the Appalachian landscape and its authentic portrayal of the region’s culture and people. Kinfolks–adapted for the screen as The Wilgus Stories–is celebrated for vivid storytelling that captures the essence of life in Kentucky coal country.

More Adult, Non-Juvenile Books

  • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die.

  • Nothing in the world soothes the soul better than Gospel music.

  • A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.

  • In James, when the enslaved Jim learns he is to be sold in New Orleans, he hides on Jackson Island to devise a plan for escape. Meanwhile, Huck Finn, having faked his own death, embarks on a perilous journey down the Mississippi River, intertwining their fates as they confront themes of freedom and agency in a reimagined narrative of American literature.