Walking Toward Home, Clay Bank County

"James Kibler understands that traditional stories endure because they are always new; they furnish the joys both of discovery and of rediscovery." --Fred Chappell, North Carolina poet laureate

Acutely aware of lifetimes of missed opportunities and mistakes, the characters in James Everett Kibler's new novel unconsciously hold on to a persistent hope. Walking Toward Home presents snapshots of small-town people as they continue to care for the living while mourning the dead in ways that are not uniquely Southern, but universal in purpose. The magnetism of the local country store attracts a diverse group of neighbors who tell stories and impart wisdom that was earned the hard way. Walking Toward Home is set on the banks of the Tyger River in South Carolina, an area the author himself calls home. The trials and triumphs of Chauncey Doolittle and his friends and family are intimately shared among the members of their close community. Chauncey engages in a symbiotic relationship with both the land and the people of his home. He and his neighbors--cousin Kildee, who owns the local country store; Triggerfoot Tinsley, an independent cuss who gets into hilarious scrapes; and the two widow cousins who fish all day--are Southern eccentrics with a flair for the philosophical.

Kibler's humor and poignancy are enhanced by the novel's lyrical language, which evokes the rhythm and music of Southern speech. The characters' stories of faith and mystery become a celebration of the world that has knocked them down but not completely out.