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Jeremiah's Scrapbook
“Though his book has the edginess of a psychological thriller, it is ultimately more: a love story, a rendering of the way love and memory unite in the mind to engender sentiment. This fast-paced but always thoughtful novel will give you plenty of time to make up your own meanings. It will continue to ripple through your mind long after you finish the last page.” –Margaux Fragoso, author of Tiger, Tiger
A foreman is murdered driving through a mob of striking coal miners, and two union men are promptly arrested, causing a small mountain community to be torn apart as the public takes sides and a union fights for its survival. One reporter, however, soon suspects that something more devious is at play than random labor violence.
Jeremiah’s Scrapbook is the story Carol, a reporter who abandons a successful career with a major national newspaper to return to her southern West Virginia home seeking the home she never knew. Arriving to cover a UMWA strike for the local paper, however, she finds little has changed, and as the stand-off turns violent her loyalties are challenged as both sides view her with suspicion and derision. Jeremiah, her harshest critic, is a stubborn and acerbic retired miner who sets off an escalating war of words despite the fact that his grandson, Matthew, latches onto Carol to fill the void of his mother’s death—Jeremiah’s only child. Yet when Carol begins to suspect a powerful coal company is hiding an explosive secret, her search for the truth threatens to end her career and perhaps her life. Suddenly a reluctant Jeremiah finds himself her only remaining ally.
At heart a thriller involving labor violence and industrial sabotage at the dawn of the Internet Age when all the rules were changing, the soul of Jeremiah's Scrapbook is a tale of surrogate family that unfolds as three lost and battered souls confront fierce political and personal differences to form a multi-generational bond more inspiring than any tale of romantic love. This uniquely structured novel unfolds as Jeremiah flips through a scrapbook of newspaper articles written by Carol, struggling to piece together events of the past year in his mind. Part mystery, part romance as Carol flirts with dangerous passion and true love, part social commentary, part reflection on modern labor and politics, and part family saga, Jeremiah’s Scrapbook will entertain, tug at your heart, and challenge stereotypes and simple notions of the truth.
A foreman is murdered driving through a mob of striking coal miners, and two union men are promptly arrested, causing a small mountain community to be torn apart as the public takes sides and a union fights for its survival. One reporter, however, soon suspects that something more devious is at play than random labor violence.
Jeremiah’s Scrapbook is the story Carol, a reporter who abandons a successful career with a major national newspaper to return to her southern West Virginia home seeking the home she never knew. Arriving to cover a UMWA strike for the local paper, however, she finds little has changed, and as the stand-off turns violent her loyalties are challenged as both sides view her with suspicion and derision. Jeremiah, her harshest critic, is a stubborn and acerbic retired miner who sets off an escalating war of words despite the fact that his grandson, Matthew, latches onto Carol to fill the void of his mother’s death—Jeremiah’s only child. Yet when Carol begins to suspect a powerful coal company is hiding an explosive secret, her search for the truth threatens to end her career and perhaps her life. Suddenly a reluctant Jeremiah finds himself her only remaining ally.
At heart a thriller involving labor violence and industrial sabotage at the dawn of the Internet Age when all the rules were changing, the soul of Jeremiah's Scrapbook is a tale of surrogate family that unfolds as three lost and battered souls confront fierce political and personal differences to form a multi-generational bond more inspiring than any tale of romantic love. This uniquely structured novel unfolds as Jeremiah flips through a scrapbook of newspaper articles written by Carol, struggling to piece together events of the past year in his mind. Part mystery, part romance as Carol flirts with dangerous passion and true love, part social commentary, part reflection on modern labor and politics, and part family saga, Jeremiah’s Scrapbook will entertain, tug at your heart, and challenge stereotypes and simple notions of the truth.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 6, 2014
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