That Bright Land by Terry Roberts

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really liked this book, which my aunt gave me for either birthday or Christmas a couple of years ago. She saw the phrase “SOUTHERN GOTHIC THRILLER” on the back and thought I’d enjoy it. She was right.

I enjoy reading works set in the area where I grew up. Madison County in western North Carolina has a rich history and is an interesting socio-cultural stew today, and writers can do a lot with it. Terry Roberts has done a lot with it. The representation of Barnard resonates well with my memories of many trips there via bicycle and car from my ancestral home in Walnut. Big Pine and Hot Springs and the wooded MadCo hollers are also so familiar that I found myself easily able to be present with the characters.

And I enjoyed those characters, particularly the women, May June Washington and Sarah Freeman, both of whom come alive in the reading imagination. Jacob Ballard has an engaging voice and, like many Madison County voices, tells a fine story. The parade of interesting mountain folk was vivid and reminded me, in a good way, of those who come and go throughout Fred Chappell’s wonderful I AM ONE OF YOU FOREVER.

But Roberts’s story is his own in THAT BRIGHT LAND. It’s a good mystery, a touching love story, and a well-imagined historical fiction.



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