Summer Reading Program

Saints at the River

by Ron Rash

 

First year students entering Guilford in the fall of 2008 will read and discuss Saints at the River, by North Carolina author Ron Rash. Students will receive copies of the novel from the Office for Campus Life in July. The campus bookstore in Founders Hall will sell copies as well. Discussions will take place during the fall semester, and the author will visit campus Thursday, Oct. 23, for a series of events. College faculty, staff, alumni and friends are invited to join in this common reading.

Saints at the River is a novel about a small southern town divided by the aftermath of a tragic accident. Its author is a poet, short story writer and novelist who is the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

In Saints at the River, a 12-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy. The girl's parents want to attempt a rescue of the body while environmentalists are convinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is a 28-year-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident.

Saints at the River explores some of the deepest human themes: love of the land, the hold of the dead on the living and the need to dive beneath the surface to arrive at a deeper truth.

Rash was born in Chester Springs, S.C., in 1953 and grew up in Boiling Springs, N.C. In 1994, he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth. Since then, he has published three collections of poetry, three short story collections and three novels. Rash's poems and stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and journals, and with each new book, he has confirmed his position as a central and significant Appalachian writer.

Rash's novels include One Foot in Eden (2002), Saints at the River (2004) and The World Made Straight (2006). He received the Novello Literary Award and Appalachian Book of the Year Award for One Foot in Eden and the Weatherford Award and Fiction Book of the Year from the Southern Book Critics Circle and Southeastern Booksellers Association for Saints at the River. His next novel, Serena, is scheduled to be released in October 2008.

This is the second year of the common readings for first years. Last fall students read Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

May 2, 2008