A Southeast Booksellers Association Best Book of the Year Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town of his boyhood to tend to his ailing mother, and clean out his deceased father's workroom. What he discovers there leads him #8212;and the reader #8212;on an unforgettable journey through the secret life of Jess's father, Joe Robert, which culminates in a moment of profound mystery and comedy. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Joe Robert Kirkman has been dead for 10 years, and his wife, Cora, is ailing when their son, poet and college professor Jess, returns to the mountains of western North Carolina in the final volume of the Kirkman saga, Chappell's chronicle of this curious Appalachian family. Strong-willed but incurably depressed, Cora has already begun preparations for her own death. Because of a mixup at the local cemetery, the family burial plot must be relocated, and Jess and his sister, Mitzi, are ordered to find a suitable new plot, for which they begin entreating neighbors who may have land to spare. Meanwhile, Jess must finally clean out his father's abandoned shed of a workshop. During the excavation, Jess discovers a map marked with the names of women, which he believes may be an adulterous "black book." He sets out to find the women in question, and to perhaps discover his father through the evidence of his sins, though what he finally unearths is both more honorable and more bizarre than anything he could have imagined. The unfolding tale is both a traditional mystery and a journey of introspection, the former shaped by oral history while the latter is governed by private memory. Both follow a pattern dictated by Jess's struggle to translate passages of Dante's Inferno, which acts here as a thematic chorus. Chappell studs his novel with autobiographical quirks (Jess writes under the pseudonym "Fred Chappell"), and narrates with his trademark voice, one both poetic and inclusive of the idioms of the Appalachian Mountain region. Fans of Chappell (Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You; Brighten the Corner Where You Are) will find this an intelligent and rewarding if sentimental closure to the Kirkman cycle. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Prolific poet/novelist Chappell again chronicles the lives of the Kirkman family, who have appeared in three previous works, most recently Farewell, I'm Bound To Leave You. Son Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town where he grew up because his mother is dying and there are still many loose ends associated with his late father's estate. Jess and his sister, Mitzi, must find a final resting place for both parents, and Jess must also locate his father's mysterious workshop and dispose of its contents. The treasure map and large bunch of keys he discovers in the process help Jess to know his father better after death. The townspeople's personalities and picturesque charm supply a unique perspective, and Chappell's irrepressible humor and homespun wisdom depict a long-gone way of Southern Appalachian life. A loving look back to a long-ago time and place; for public libraries and Southern fiction collections.Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, MD Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information