A Flash in the Hollow

About this book

In 1908, Evelyn Hart, a 34-year-old professional photographer from Chicago, arrives in the insular Appalachian town of Coal Creek, West Virginia. Fleeing a quiet society scandal, Evelyn is an outsider armed with a bulky view camera, glass plates, and a magazine assignment to document mountain life. The town is fiercely protective of its generations-old traditions and deeply scarred by an unspoken 1892 cave-in. As the mining company prepares to introduce mechanized coal cutters that threaten both the fragile ecosystem and the safety of the miners, Evelyn's six-week assignment transforms into a profound reckoning. Initially hiding behind her lens as a detached observer, she soon becomes entangled in the lives of the townspeople—a grieving midwife, a one-armed former miner, a defiant teenage girl, and a charming but anxious mine superintendent. When a disaster strikes the hollow, Evelyn must decide whether to use her photographs as art or evidence, navigating a moral crossroads that could either save Coal Creek's way of life or invite retaliatory ruin.

Book details

Genres:

Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

Language:

en

Published:

2026-05-08

Content rating:

PG-13