Each Vagabond by Name

“It was an ordinary fall until the gypsies came...”

Shelk, Pennsylvania is a small mining town in Pennsylvania lying along the Appalachian Mountains, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else, and nothing much changes. Daily life is a series of routines, and listening to the ever-present gossip. The atmosphere in Shelk changes when a group of runaways, mostly teenagers, put down roots – however temporary they may be – in the hills nearby. Things begin to go missing, houses are broken into, and the safety the residents had become so accustomed to now seems very fragile. Who to blame? A vigilante mentality envelopes the town, with a few residents who reach out trying to help, but who may also have other motivations.

Ramsy owns a small bar where the locals tend to congregate, and Stella, Ramsy’s former object of limited affection, reappears one night at Ramsy’s bar after these “gypsies” appear. Ramsy and Stella each have their own story of heartbreak, Ramsy’s daughter has been out of his life for many years, and Stella’s daughter disappeared when she an infant. Ramsy and Stella each befriend one of the wandering teens, which brings about an increasingly suspicious and hostile attitude toward them by the townspeople.

Each Vagabond by Name is a wonderful tale of finding your way out of darkness and finding where you belong.

Release Date: 1 June 2016

Many thanks to University of New Orleans Press, NetGalley and especially to Margo Orlando Littell for providing me with an advanced copy of Each Vagabond by Name to read.