The story behind Wilma Dykeman’s “Family of Earth” is almost as captivating as the book itself. Found in her belongings after her death in 2006, the 200-page manuscript is an account of her Depression-era childhood north of Asheville, North Carolina.
Richmond, Virginia, attorney W. Jeff Barnes grew up in coal country, and his novel about the early 20th century efforts to unionize the coalfields gives names and faces to those who lived there.
