Ann’s Pick
May 2020
The Moonshiner’s Daughter
By Donna Everhart
356 pages, Kensington Books: New York, NY 2020
If you are in the mood for Southern literature this is the read for you. The Moonshiner’s Daughter is a coming of age story set in rural North Carolina of the early 1960’s. It is the story of Jessie Sasser, who is in turmoil about her family’s legacy after witnessing her mother’s tragic passing.
This life-changing loss occurred when Jessie was only 4 years old. Fast-forward 12 years and 16-year-old Jessie still bears the emotional scars. Her father, Easton, refuses to discuss her mother and the circumstances surrounding her death are still a mystery. Jessie’s younger brother, Merritt, doesn’t remember their mother at all and idolizes their father. Jessie, however, blames Easton and the family’s moonshining for her mother’s death. To help run the moonshine operations are Uncle Virgil, Aunt Juanita and their son, Oral, each with their own problems and issues. No one will discuss Lydia, Jessie’s mother.
One day while driving out to check on a still, Easton, Jessie and Merritt are driven off the road, most likely by a rival moonshining family. Merritt suffers a horrendous injury which confirms Jessie’s opinion that moonshine is “Good for nothing is what it’s good for.”
Slowly we learn that Jessie had developed an eating disorder. She feels isolated and outcast at Piney Tops H.S. She is struggling for control over her life and refuses to accept support given by her father through his moonshine profits.
There is intrigue, danger and mystery. There is help from Mrs. Brewer, the school nurse, who recognizes Jessie’s problem and discovers there are even deeper issues facing the Sasser family.
Jessie is ashamed to be the moonshiner’s daughter. She yearns to know more about the mother she so desperately misses. Yet federal revenues and rivals are closing in. Can Jessie accept or reject her family’s legacy in order to save it?
This is a vivid, compelling, intricately plotted novel with well-developed characters. If you are looking for a gritty young heroine in a moving and authentic novel, The Moonshiner’s Daughter may just be the book for you.