Page 8 - Harnett Life Winter 2019

THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER

by Donna Everhart

DETERMINED TO DENY THE OUTLAW LEGACY
THAT BOTH FEEDS HER FAMILY AND TOOK HER MOTHER’S LIFE,
A YOUNG WOMAN SPARKS A DANGEROUS RIVALRY
IN 1960’S NORTH CAROLINA

“Donna Everhart skillfully
evokes a harsh landscape
and harsh times, squarely
placing the reader in
Appalachia right along with
the family.”
—Historical Novels Review
on The Road to Bittersweet

“Reminiscent of the novels of Lee
Smith, Kaye Gibbons, and Sandra
“Like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Dallas, Everhart builds a firm sense
Education of Dixie Dupree delves into of place, portraying the tiredness and
subjects too powerful to allow the book to be hope of a dry southern summer and
labeled as charming. But there is a wistful voicing strong southern women.”
magic in seeing the world again through a – Booklist on The Forgiving Kind
child’s viewpoint, even if that world is not as
shiny and innocent as one would hope.”
– The Amazon Book Review

Award-winning author Donna Everhart writes with an shamed by and believes is what caused her mother’s un-
authentic Southern voice about authentic Southern expe- timely death. The Sassers have lived and died by their ille-
riences. Set during the 1960’s in Wilkes County, North gal production and distribution of moonshine for genera-
Carolina – the birthplace of NASCAR and known as the tions, but to deny this liveli-hood she’s destined to inherit,
“Moonshine Capital of the World” – THE MOONSHIN- she’s willing to burn down everything her family has. In so
ER’S DAUGHTER is her fourth novel, written in an inti- doing, she sparks dangerous old rivalries while fueling her
mate, pure, first-person voice that has become a signature own self-destructive drives in this beautifully rendered,
of Everhart’s style. It evokes the singular life of sixteen- moving story of self-discovery, inheritance, and family
year-old Jessie Sasser, a young woman reckoning with love tested to its limits.
her family’s legacy of bootlegging, which she’s deeply

Page 8 Harnett Life ~ Winter 2019