Fall Line: A Novel

December 1, 1955: Flood gates are poised to slam shut on a concrete dam spanning the Oogasula River, creating a lake that will submerge a crossroads community and thousands of acres of woodlands in rural Georgia. The novel unfolds in one day’s action as viewed through the eyes of Elmer Blizzard, a troubled ex-deputy; Mrs. McNulty, a lonely widow who refuses to leave her doomed shack by the river; Percy, her loyal, aging dog; and a rapacious politician, State Senator Aubrey Terrell, for whom the new lake is named. Originally published in 2011 to critical acclaim, Fall Line is a story of loss, bitterness, hypocrisy, violence, and revenge in the changing South and is populated by complex characters who want to do the right thing but don’t know how. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Best of the South” selection, Joe Samuel Starnes’s novel is a memorable, beautiful, and heartbreaking tale of a backwater hamlet’s damaged people and its transformed landscape.