The Homegoing

Fiction. In Laurelville, Ohio--a small town in the foothills of the Appalachians--nobody knows why Hannah Marshal drowned in Laurel Creek in 1937. Over two decades later, her niece, Ruth Sherman, takes it upon herself to find out. As she ispressed by her grandmother to learn the folk cures and healing rituals of Appalachian Christianity and armed with only a few rumors, old newspapers clipping and even some ghost stories about her aunt, Ruth begins to uncover the events surrounding Hannah's death. Twenty-one year old Ruth finds herself on a journey into the past, the traditions of a southern-Ohio Pentecostal church, and the shadowy side of the Holy Ghost among serpent handlers. On the journey, Ruth discovers her own spiritual gifts and uncovers the unspoken shame in her family.

"Healings. Snake handlers. Stills. Quotes from the Bible. Family feuds. Chicken coops. Speaking in tongues. Indian medicine bags. Laying outs. Intergenerational rivalry. Forty lashes of hot wax. Old-fashioned tent revivals. Michael Olin-Hitt, in THE HOMEGOING, has, with skillful writing and a true knowledge of home, combined the aura of the mid-twentieth-century Appalachia of southern Ohio with the puzzle of a mysterious disappearance and the solving of a family mystery. Read and enjoy."--Jane Piirto, author of SAUNAS