Set in Prohibition-era rural Virginia, Walls tells the fictional early life of Sallie Kincaid, a girl who is born of bold, fearless parents, unafraid to stand up for themselves. Duke Kincaid, her father, is the leading citizen of their county, a place where hillbillies live in poverty, attempting to eke out a living farming from the thin-soiled hilly land. In fact, their main cash crop is growing corn to make moonshine whiskey, sold to contacts locally. The story begins when eight-year old Sallie tries to take her half-brother Eddie on a wild ride on her new Defiance Coaster wagon. As she rolls rapidly down the sloping drive, things get out of control and Eddie falls out and suffers a concussion. Her step-mother Jane gets Duke to send his daughter away to her Aunt Faye, not to return until Jane’s death due to influenza.

The story follows Sallie’s gradual realizations about her mother, her father, and her extended family surrounding her in Claiborne County. She always admired her larger than life father, the way he took care of people, handled situations with great confidence, was looked to by everyone around as judge, jury, and fixer of all problems. We see her learn bit by bit the truth, foibles, and human weaknesses of those she has loved. Sallie must also find her own path, figuring out how to lead when all responsibility falls to her.

While I did not read The Glass Castle, Walls’ memoir, I did read a few articles about it, enough to see that this novel is partly inspired by her family and young life, and partly by where she now lives. Culpeper, VA is a few hours from Roanoke and Richmond, two cities that figure in this story. It is easy to see that in her research of the history of this region, the land is rich for the imagination of how people lived their lives in earlier times.

This novel is exciting for its depiction of a woman of the early twentieth century, who shows strength and self-determination to go against the norms of her time, to create an authentic life for herself. This is a good summer, vacation read, and a nice piece of historical fiction. Recommended.