In turn-of-the-century Appalachia, Julie Harmon marries and faces a hard life of subsistence farming: a constant struggle against not only nature but the unpredictable humans who inhabit her world.

I know about Masenier because I was there. I seen him die. We didn't tell anybody the truth because it seemed so shameful, the way he died.

"An ideal example of a regional tale: free of 'local color,' respectful of his people, entirely free of condescension, Morgan offers a gliding, unhurried story..."

"Morgan's talent for gracefully illustrating the practical details of rural life is astonishing. GAP CREEK's beauty is found in its depiction of the dazzling Appalachian landscape and its people....[A] heartfelt picture of southern life."        -- David Harsanyi

"[D]espite a certain old-fashioned charm, [GAP CREEK] rests not so much on a plot as on a never-ending series of crises. It reads less like a novel than a memoir written by a very old woman, who wants her grandchildren to know the events that made up her life, the fires and floods, the births and the deaths, and the chores that have vanished from the modern world....These are powerful images from a rural past, more powerful than the story that contains them. What's missing from GAP CREEK is the connection between Julie and the other characters....There is only Julie's vision, only Julie's voice, and it is the voice of a person who has no expectation that life might be enjoyed, only that it should be endured."              -- Susan Dooley