Appalachian writer, Jenny Cafaro, is an international bestselling author and Amazon All-Star. Her award-winning memoir Run, Girls earned a Kirkus recommendation and the IPPY Awards Gold Medal, Illumination award, Book of the Year award, Literary Titan Gold, and multiple other literary honors presents a raw Appalachian novel.
Inspired by a true story from the Depression-era in coal country.
Bessie's marriage was printed on the front page in 1931— beside the murders and crimes — and that told you everything the county of Blackwater thought of Bessie Winter.
They called her mudpuppy — a bottom-feeder, something that crawls through the dark and never comes clean. Bessie was as poor as she was vulnerable. And the mud the town slung never washed off. But before she was a scandal, Bessie Winter was just a girl. The oldest of eight in a newspaper-lined shack in the hollers of Appalachian coal country, she was fifteen when she caught the eye of a man older than her daddy. She was never expected to survive — let alone matter.
But she did both.
Now, at the end of her life, Bessie is finally ready to tell it true — not the story the town chose to believe, but what really happened the night her husband died, and the impossible choice that Christ himself couldn't have made clean.
In a world that offered no mercy, Bessie found her grace. It came from within.
The Bible of Black Water County is a gripping, morally complex novel of survival, faith, and the cost of staying alive — inspired by the life of the author's great-grandmother. For readers of Delia Owens, Serena by Ron Rash, and the raw, unflinching tradition of Appalachian storytelling.
Perfect for book clubs! This edition includes a book club sheet in the back.

📖 Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/47SgbYP