After discovering a collection of letters written by his father, who he thought was dead, Abel Shifflett decides to run away-accompanied by Willie, his adult friend who is mentally disabled but extremely protective of him. But their journey is ill-fated from the start. Will Abel find the home-and father-he's always longed for?
All Abel wants is a little bit of magic in his life. Enough money so his mom doesn't cry at night. Healing for his broken body. And maybe a few answers about his past.
When Abel discovers letters to him from the father he believed dead, he wonders if magic has come to the hills of Mattingly, Virginia, after all. But not everything is as it seems.
With a lot of questions and a little bit of hope, Abel decides to run away to find the truth. But danger follows him from the moment he jumps his first boxcar, forcing Abel to rely on his simpleminded friend Willie-a man wanted for murder who knows more about truth than most-and a beautiful young woman they met on the train.
From Appalachia to the Tennessee wilds and through the Carolina mountains, the name of a single small town beckons: Fairhope. That is where Abel believes his magic lays. But will it be the sort that will bring a broken boy healing? And is it the magic that will one day lead him home?
- An achingly perfect tale of love, friendship and faith
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
- Other books by Billy Coffey: Snow Day, Paper Angels, The Devil Walks in Mattingly, and In the Heart of the Dark Wood
Stories are told of a witch who lives in the woods outside of town. But where does truth end and legend begin?
A group of teenagers find strange prints seared into the ground around their campsite. They follow the tracks, thinking it will lead to fun.
But it doesn't. They eventually arrive at the edge of Alvaretta Graves's propertyhouse of the legendary Riverwood Witch. When an agrument that arises turns violent, Alvaretta places a curse on them.
The sickness comes the next day, gripping residents one by one. Fear overtakes the town, and panic soon follows.
The posse that makes its way back to the witch's home is armed with guns and Bibles and is searching for an end to the sickness and violence. But they are in no way prepared for what they discover there.
It's a fool's errand—but this quest through the dark woods is the only chance Allie has of ever feeling at home again.
Mary Granderson’s body was never found after a tornado swept through the town of Mattingly. For her daughter Allie, each of the 542 days since have robbed her of a bit more hope that her mother will come home. Allie’s father has turned to drink in a failed effort to contain his grief. What light still shines in Allie’s life comes from three things: her best friend Zach, the broken compass Mary gave her just before the tornado struck, and the nativity scene that has sat in their front yard ever since—mother, father, and child together.
Allie wakes one morning to find Mary missing from the nativity—taken, she believes, by her father in an attempt to force Allie to move on. Amidst her panic and grief, Allie discovers that the compass on her wrist—broken since the tornado—is now functioning, and the needle points not north, but to Mary.
Accompanied by Zach and her dog, the compass leads Allie away from town into the wilderness surrounding Mattingly. As the children wander farther into the dark woods, they find themselves lost and cold . . . and they slowly discover they're not alone. Something is following them, something that shouldn't be there. And it will take all the courage and sacrifice that two children can summon to not only save themselves, but to bring Mary home.
What marks the boundary between a miracle from God and the imagination of a child?
Leah is a child from away, isolated from her peers because of her stutter. But then she begins painting scenes that are epic in scope, brilliant in detail, and suffused with rich, prophetic imagery. When the event foreshadowed in the first painting dramatically comes true, the town of Mattingly takes notice.
Leah attributes her ability to foretell the future to an invisible friend she calls the Rainbow Man. Some of the townsfolk are enchanted with her. Others fear her. But there is one thing they all agree on—there is no such thing as the Rainbow Man.
Her father, the town psychologist, is falling apart over his inability to heal his daughter or fix his marriage. And the town minister is unraveled by the notion a mere child with no formal training may be hearing from God more clearly than he does.
While the town bickers over what to do with this strange child, the content of Leah’s paintings grows darker. Still, Leah insists that the Rainbow Man’s heart is pure. But then a dramatic and tragic turn of events leaves the town reeling and places everyone’s lives in danger. Now the people of Mattingly face a single choice:
Will they cling to what they know . . . or embrace the things Leah believes in that cannot be seen?
Awakened by radio broadcasts urging the residents of a small Virginia town to take a snow day rather than travel to school and work, Peter Boyd finds himself with both an unexpected day off and an opportunity to find big truths in small moments and surprise encounters. Peter believes he has a good life, with a decent job and a family he loves. But he’s quietly worried he’ll be cut when downsizing takes effect at the factory, his family will lose the home they love, and his faith will crumble along with his bank account. Through the course of one day, Peter finds himself revisiting his past through old friends, finding out there is a Santa Claus—though he drives a truck instead of a sleigh—and rediscovering that whatever comes in life, hope is the only choice that makes sense. Debut novelist Billy Coffey offers a heartwarming and beautifully story about the faithful way God speaks even when we won’t listen. Like Peter, you’ll reaffirm that faith is worth having and your worst fears are no match for an astounding, loving God.
