-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:A rich, coming of age tale set during the boom and bust years of an immigrant coal mining town in 19th-century California.
In this mesmerizing first novel by a gifted young writer, the drama of California's rich immigrant history and
the freshness and wonder of childhood combine with darker elements of legend,
magic and mystery. Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler calls it
"a startling accomplishment . . . an enchanting novel by a lushly talented
young writer." Tom Franklin, author of Hell at the Breech, says,
"Cunningham is a writer we'll be hearing a lot more from." And Laurel
Johnson of the Midwest Book Review calls it "a book to be savored .
. . It has my highest recommendation."
Born while the Civil War is raging further east, young Asher Witherow seems
marked for an extraordinary future. Anything but typical, he captures the
attention of the eerily watchful apprentice minister and schoolteacher, Josiah
Lyte, and of young Thomas Motion, a strange boy who can see into the deepest
darkness.
When Thomas mysteriously vanishes, only Asher knows the truth of what has
happened to him, and he must decide whether to keep his knowledge secret or
reveal what he believes to be his own unforgivable mistake. It is an agonizing
moral decision that will forever affect the lives of those closest to him and
that will ultimately have a profound impact on all of Nortonville.
In breathtaking language that contrasts the striking landscape of
California's Diablo Valley with the harsh details of life in an 1870s
coal-mining boom town, M. Allen Cunningham takes us to an extraordinary time and
place. It is a time when the brutal hardships of daily life are leavened by a
sense of miraculous change just around the corner. It is a place of sensual,
almost supernatural beauty, peopled with remarkable characters—like the highly
unconventional Lyte, the "pagan" midwife Sarah Norton and Asher's
beloved friend and closest confidante, the otherworldly Anna Flood.
Impeccably imagined, sensitive and real in its portrayal of a young boy
confronting unanswerable questions with grace and strength, The Green Age of
Asher Witherow is a remarkable book that convincingly shatters the equation
of childhood and innocence.
This is one of those books where the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts that I fear to give you details from the plot, so all I can do is encourage you to read the excerpt for yourself and decide if this might be a good choice for you...continued
Full Review
(285 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Between 1830 and 2000 more than 15,000 people were killed in USA mines. I assume similar historic figures could be found for any coal mining country. For example, in Britain over 90,000 men, women and children lost their lives or were injured in mines between 1850 and 1914 (for a comprehensive resource of UK mining information see DiggingUpThePast.org.uk). Today, in industrialized countries, coal mining deaths and accidents have been much reduced because machines have taken over from the men and boys who used to work the coal face; deaths do still occur; for example the 2001 explosion in Brookwood, Alabama that killed 13; and there are health issues related to mining coal. However, this ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked The Green Age of Asher Witherow, try these:
by Natalie S. Harnett
Published 2015
Set amongst the deadly coal mine fires of 1960s Pennsylvania, The Hollow Ground is an extraordinary debut that will "grab you by the brisket and not let go" (Gary Shteyngart)
by Susan Tekulve
Published 2013
Bleak, harrowing, and beautifully told, In the Garden of Stone is a haunting saga of endurance and redemption.
Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain
Rarely does a writer combine a strikingly beautiful prose style with an
unerring instinct for storytelling. But this is indeed M. Allen Cunningham's
startling accomplishment—in his literary debut, no less. The Green Age of
Asher Witherow is an enchanting novel by a lushly talented young writer.
.gif)