2018 Summer Reading List

28 of the latest Southern novels about coming home, confronting the past and the secrets that fester during the hot summertime. 

Join us for a Twitter party today from 1-2 CST (2-3 EST) using the hashtag #southernlit. Many of the authors on the list will be dropping by to talk about their books, and we’ll be giving away a few books as well. We’ll also be posting interviews, book reviews and other content through August, so stay tuned. 

OUT NOW 

A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers

When war arrives, the master of Beauvais Plantation, Anthony Levallios, foresees that dominion in a new America will be measured not in acres of tobacco under cultivation by his slaves, but in industry and capital. A grievously wounded Confederate veteran loses his grip on a world he no longer understands, and his daughter finds herself married to Levallois, an arrangement that feels little better than imprisonment. Two people enslaved at Beauvais, Nurse and Rawls, overcome impossible odds to be together, only to find that the promise of coming freedom may not be something they will live to see. Seamlessly interwoven is the story of George Seldom, a man orphaned by the storm of the Civil War, looking back from the 1950s on the void where his childhood ought to have been. With the help of a young woman named Lottie, he goes in search of the place he once called home. As we watch Lottie grapple with life’s disappointments and joys in her own middle-age, in his own beautiful language, Powers asks the questions: How do we live in a world built on the suffering of others? And can love exist in a place where for 400 years violence has been the strongest form of intimacy?

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis and record his firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo’s past: memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilde, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Never before published, Barracoon brilliantly illuminates the tragedy of slavery and one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.

Beach House Reunion by Mary Alice Monroe

Cara Rutledge returns to her Southern home on the idyllic Isle of Palms. Everything is comfortingly the same, yet each detail is rife with painful memories. Only through reconnecting with family, friends and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new love, career and hope for the future. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate who doesn’t know where her life will take her, leaves her historic home in Charleston, with all its entitlement and expectations, and heads to her aunt’s beach house. On the island, she is part of the freer, natural ocean lifestyle she loves, rejoining the turtle team, learning to surf and falling in love. Remembering the lessons of her beloved grandmother, Lovie, the original “turtle lady,” Linnea rediscovers a meaningful purpose to her life and finds the courage she needs to break from tradition in Monroe’s continuation of her “Beach House” series.

Best Beach Ever by Wendy Wax

Forced to rent out or lose their beloved Bella Flora after the loss of their renovation-turned-reality-TV show “Do Over,” Maddie, Nikki, Avery, Kyra and Bitsy move into cottages at the Sunshine Hotel and Beach Club believing the worst is over—only to discover just how uncertain their futures really are. Maddie struggles with the challenges of dating a rock star whose career has come roaring back to life, while Nikki faces the daunting realities of mothering twins at 47. Avery buries herself in a tiny home build in an attempt to dodge commitment issues, and Kyra battles to protect her son from the Hollywood world she once dreamed of joining. And Bitsy is about to find out whether the rewards of seeking revenge will outweigh the risks. Luckily, when the going gets tough, the ladies of Wax’s Ten Beach Road series know that their friendship—tried and tested—can chase away the darkest clouds and let the sun shine in.

Border Child by Michel Stone

Young lovers Héctor and Lilia dreamed of a brighter future for their family in the United States. Héctor left Mexico first, to secure work and housing, but when Lilia, desperate to be with Héctor, impetuously crossed the border with their infant daughter, Alejandra, mother and child were separated. Alejandra disappeared. Now, four years later, the family has a chance to reunite, but the trauma of the past may well be permanent. Back in their sleepy hometown of Oaxaca, the couple enjoys a semblance of normal life, with a toddler son and another baby on the way. Then they receive an unexpected tip that might lead them to Alejandra, and both agree they must seize this chance, whatever the cost. Working increasingly illegal jobs to earn money for his journey north, Héctor seeks more information about his long-absent daughter. Meanwhile, a bedridden Lilia awaits the birth of their third child, but cannot keep herself from reliving the worst mistakes of her past. Mary Alice Monroe calls this book “a cross-cultural tour de force” and a “timely must-read.”

Every Single Secret by Emily Carpenter

Emotionally guarded Daphne Amos always believed she’d found a kindred spirit in her fiance, Heath. Both very private people, they’ve kept their pasts hidden from the world, and each other, until Heath’s escalating nightmares begin to put an undeniable strain on their relationship. Determined to give their impending marriage the best chance of succeeding, Heath insists that Daphne join him on a seven-day retreat with Dr. Matthew Cerny, a psychologist celebrated for getting to the root of repressed memories. Daphne reluctantly agrees—even though the past is the last place she wants to go. The retreat’s isolated and forbidding location in the North Georgia mountains increases her unease, as do the doctor’s rules: they must relinquish their keys and phones, they’ll be monitored at all hours by hidden cameras, and they’re never to socialize with the other guests. One sleepless night, Daphne decides to leave her room … and only then does she realize that the institute is not at all what it seems—and that whatever’s crying out from Heath’s past isn’t meant to be heard. It’s meant to be silenced. Read our interview with Emily Carpenter HERE. 

Flood by Melissa Scholes Young

Laura Brooks fled her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, 10 years ago after a historic flood and personal heartbreak. Now she’s returned unannounced, and her family and friends don’t know what to make of it. She says she’s just home for a brief visit and her high school reunion, but she’s carrying too much luggage for that: literal and metaphorical. Soon, Laura is embroiled in small-town affairs: the contentious divorce of her rowdy best friend Rose; the campaign of her 12-year-old godson, Bobby, to become the town’s official Tom Sawyer; and the renewed interest of the man Laura once thought she’d marry, Sammy McGuire. Leaving town when she was 18 had been Laura’s only option. She feared a stifling existence in a town ruled by its past, its mythological devotion to Mark Twain and the economic and racial divide that runs as deep as the Mississippi River. She can’t forget that fateful Fourth of July when the levees broke or the decisions that still haunt her. Now, as the Mississippi rises again, a deep wound threatens to reopen, and Laura must decide if running away once more might be the best way to save herself.

The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews

When 99-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons attorney Brooke Trappnell to her 20,000 acre barrier island home of Talisa, Brooke is puzzled. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter, but why enlist Brooke and not the prestigious Atlanta law firm she has used for years? Brooke travels to Shellhaven and meets the cagey Josephine, whose home is a crumbling pink mansion at the edge of the turquoise sea. Over the course of a few meetings, Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, dark secrets, betrayal and a long-unsolved murder. She is hiring Brooke for two reasons: first, to protect her Georgia island from those who would despoil her land, and second, to help her make amends with the heirs of the women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club―Millie, Ruth and Varina. To fulfill a dying woman’s wishes, Brooke must find Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bring them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met. But in doing so, Brooke unleashes the makings of a scandal that could make someone rich beyond their wildest dreams, or cause them to be in the crosshairs of a murderer.

How We Came to Be by Johnnie Bernhard

Fifty-year-old Karen Anders, a high school English teacher and the adoptive mother of Tiffany, comes to terms with being a single parent and a clumsy drunk in the multicultural melting pot of Houston, Texas, as she forges an unlikely friendship with Leona Supak, a WWII Hungarian refugee, who inspires Karen to change her views on motherhood, drinking and men. Karen’s teaching job provides an ongoing challenge, with low-scoring students and a lack of support from school administrators. Meanwhile, Tiffany moves to Austin to attend the University of Texas, but soon neglects her academic life when she meets a gamer boyfriend and begins a job at the Ink & Juice, a tattoo parlor/juicing bar. Tiffany hides the truth of her new life from Karen through a text-only relationship. Feeling rejected, Karen explores the paradox of romance for the middle-aged. Despite the challenges, a family unit inspired by strangers and second chances comes together in How We Came to Be.

Hurricane Season by Lauren K. Denton

Betsy and Ty Franklin have long since buried their desire for children of their own. While Ty manages their herd of dairy cows, Betsy busies herself with the farm’s day-to-day operations and tries to forget her dream of motherhood. But when her free-spirited sister, Jenna, drops off her two young daughters for “just two weeks,” Betsy’s carefully constructed wall of self-protection begins to crumble. As the two weeks stretch deeper into the Alabama summer, Betsy and Ty learn to navigate the new additions in their world—and revel in the laughter that now fills their home. Meanwhile, record temperatures promise to usher in the most active hurricane season in decades. Attending an art retreat 400 miles away, Jenna is fighting her own battles. She finally has time and energy to focus on her photography, a lifelong ambition. But she wonders how her rediscovered passion can fit in with the life she’s made back home as a single mom. When Hurricane Ingrid aims a steady eye at the Alabama coast, Jenna must make a decision that will change her family’s future, even as Betsy and Ty try to protect their beloved farm and their hearts.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

The Paris Wife author returns to the subject of Hemingway in her latest novel. In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own.

The Secret to Southern Charm by Kristy Woodson Harvey

After finding out her military husband is missing in action, middle sister Sloane’s world crumbles as her worst nightmare comes true. She can barely climb out of bed, much less summon the strength to be the parent her children deserve. Her mother, Ansley, provides a much-needed respite as she puts her personal life on hold to help Sloane and her grandchildren wade through their new grief-stricken lives. But between caring for her own aging mother, her daughters and her grandchildren, Ansley’s private worry is that secrets from her past will come to light. But when Sloane’s sisters, Caroline and Emerson, remind Sloane that no matter what, she promised her husband she would carry on for their young sons, Sloane finds the support and courage she needs to chase her biggest dreams—and face her deepest fears. Taking a cue from her middle daughter, Ansley takes her own leap of faith and realizes that, after all this time, she might finally be able to have it all. Harvey delivers with this second novel in her beloved Peachtree Bluff series!

Swimming Between Worlds by Elaine Neil Orr

Tacker Hart left his home in North Carolina as a local high school football hero, but returns in disgrace after being fired from a prestigious architectural assignment in West Africa. Yet the culture and people he grew to admire have left their mark on him. Adrift, he manages his father’s grocery store and becomes reacquainted with a girl he barely knew growing up. Kate Monroe’s parents have died, leaving her the family home and the right connections in her Southern town. But a trove of disturbing letters sends her searching for the truth behind the comfortable life she’s been bequeathed. On the same morning, but at different moments, Tacker and Kate encounter a young African-American, Gaines Townson, and their stories converge with his. As Winston-Salem is pulled into the tumultuous 1960s, these three Americans find themselves at the center of the civil rights struggle, coming to terms with the legacies of their pasts as they search for an ennobling future in what Diane Chamberlain calls “a smart and tender tale.”

The Undiscovered Country by Mike Nemeth

When Randle Marks buried his abusive father three years ago, he thought he had escaped the gravitational pull of his dysfunctional family. Living in Florida, Randle was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s served his time, written a book about his scientific work and plans to marry his college sweetheart. But his new beginnings are interrupted by his mother’s medical emergency. He is summoned to his boyhood home of Augusta, Georgia, to face long-suppressed memories, contemptuous siblings and his dying mother’s desperate attempts to conceal her secrets and preserve her dignity. While investigating her medical situation, he uncovers conspiracies to hijack two estates—his mother’s and that of a wealthy man who claims to be his birth father. To bury the past, he will have to learn the truth about the past.

OUT IN JUNE

Ain’t She a Peach by Molly Harper (June 12)

Frankie McCready talks to dead people. Not like a ghost whisperer or anything—but it seems rude to embalm them and not at least say hello. Fortunately, at the McCready Family Funeral Home & Bait Shop, Frankie’s eccentricities fit right in. Lake Sackett’s embalmer and county coroner, Frankie’s goth styling and passion for nerd culture mean she’s not your typical Southern girl, but the McCreadys are hardly your typical Southern family. Maybe that’s why Frankie is so fascinated by new sheriff Eric Linden, a recent transplant from Atlanta, who sees a homicide in every hunting accident or boat crash, which seems a little paranoid for this sleepy tourist town. What’s he so worried about? And what kind of cop can get a job with the Atlanta PD but can’t stand to look at a dead body? Frankie has other questions that need answering first—namely, who’s behind the recent break-in attempts at the funeral home, and how can she stop them?

The Darkest Time of Night by Jeremy Finley (June 26)

When a seven-year-old boy vanishes in the woods behind his home, the only witness is his older brother who whispers, “The lights took him.” As the FBI and National Guard launch a massive search, the boys’ grandmother Lynn Roseworth fears only she knows the truth. But coming forward would ruin her family and her U.S. senator husband’s political career. Determined to find her beloved grandson and expose the truth, Lynn must return to the work she once abandoned to unravel the existence of a place long forgotten by the world. It is there, buried deep beneath the bitter snow and the absent memories of its inhabitants, where her grandson may finally be found. But there are forces that wish to silence her. And Lynn will find how far they will go to stop her, and how the truth about her own forgotten childhood could reveal the greatest mystery of all time. Nashville investigative journalist and debut author Finley delivers “a long-overdue ‘Close Encounters’ for the modern age,” according to J.T. Ellison.

Dreams of Falling by Karen White (June 5)

Nine years ago, a humiliated Larkin Lanier fled Georgetown, South Carolina, knowing she could never go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she realizes she has no choice but to return to the place she both loves and dreads—and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home. Ivy, Larkin’s mother, is discovered badly injured and unconscious in the burned-out wreckage of her ancestral plantation home. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly 50 years–whispers of love, sacrifice and betrayal–that lead back to three girls on the brink of womanhood who found their friendship tested in the most heartbreaking ways.

Florida by Lauren Groff (June 5)

The New York Times-bestselling author of Fates and Furies returns to bring the reader into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild—a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character—a steely and conflicted wife and mother. The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center.

The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall (June 19)

Proud generations of Jameses sat atop the Lamoyne economic and social ladder, but now they are left with only a failing pecan orchard, the subjects of quiet whispers and veiled ridicule. As they enter the tumultuous 1960s, 11-year-old Tallulah strives to shield the James name and hold her family together. But her parent’s volatile relationship, erratic behavior and hands-off approach to rearing their four children is never-ending fuel to the fire. When betrayal and death arrive hand in hand, Tallulah takes to the road, headed to what turns out to be the not-so-promised land of California. She reinvents herself, but her scars run deep; she settles for security when complete happiness remains out of reach. And then, the secret that set her family on the path to destruction comes back to roost and Tallulah must risk her hard won security to save a beloved brother.

Southernmost by Silas House (June 5)

In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew—and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he’d turned against years ago after Luke came out. And it is there, at the southernmost point of the country, that Asher and Justin discover a new way of thinking about the world, and a new way of understanding love. “Southernmost engages my most deeply hidden fears and hopes,” says Dorothy Allison.

Three Days Missing by Kimberly Belle (June 26)

When Kat Jenkins awakens to the police on her doorstep, her greatest fear is realized. Her nine-year-old son, Ethan, is missing—vanished from the Georgia cabin where he’d been on an overnight field trip with his class. Shocked and distraught, Kat rushes to the campground where he was last seen. But she’s too late; the authorities have returned from their search empty-handed after losing Ethan’s trail in the mountain forest. Another mother from the school, Stef Huntington, seems like she has it all: money, prominence in the community, a popular son and a loving husband. She hardly knows Kat, except for the vicious gossip that swirls around Kat’s traumatic past. But as the police investigation unfolds, Ethan’s disappearance will have earth-shattering consequences in Stef’s own life—and the paths of these two mothers are about to cross in ways no one could have anticipated. Racing against the clock, their desperate search for answers begins, one where the greatest danger could lie behind the everyday smiles of those they trust the most.

Treeborne by Caleb Johnson (June 5)

If Daniel Wallace says he wishes he’d written it, then we want to read it. Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked, and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms and frantic change—and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart. As the world closes in on Elberta, this debut novel lifts the veil and offers a glimpse of how the past gets mixed up in thoughts of the future and how home is a story as much as a place.

Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard (June 5)

On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than 100 of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. It is the second-deadliest disaster in the history of aviation. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers and friends faced with renegotiating their lives. Robert, a newspaper editor, must decide if he can reconnect with his beloved but estranged wife, whose deceased parents have left her penniless. Nineteen-year-old Piedmont Dobbs, recently denied admission to an integrated school, senses a moment of uncertain opportunity. And Mayor Ivan Allen is tasked with the job of moving Atlanta forward—the hedonism of the 1960s and the urgency of the Civil Rights Movement at his city’s doorstep. Pittard tells the story of a single sweltering summer in what Tom Perrotta calls “a deeply resonant portrait of individuals—and a city—in the throes of grief, and on the cusp of momentous change.” Read our interview with Hannah Pittard HERE. 

OUT IN JULY

The Disappearing by Lori Roy (July 17)

When Lane Fielding fled north Florida after high school for the anonymity of New York City, she never thought she’d return. But 20 years later, this time leaving behind her cheating husband, that’s exactly what she and her two daughters have done. Now Lane is tending bar, living under her parents’ roof on the historic Fielding Plantation, and planning how to escape the crimes of her father—crimes that date back to his role as the director of a local boys’ reform school, a role that some claim turned sinister. Things take a turn when just six months after moving back to Florida, Lane’s older daughter disappears. Lane initially fears a serial killer, like the one who traumatized north Florida in the 1970s, has again set his sights on her small town. But when Lane’s younger daughter admits to having made an odd new friend, Lane must consider that her older daughter’s disappearance is payback for her father’s crimes. Or perhaps for her own.

The New Inheritors by Kent Wascom (July 10)

In 1914, with the world on the brink of war, Isaac, a nature-loving artist whose past is mysterious to all, including himself, meets Kemper, a defiant heiress caught in the rivalry between her brothers. Kemper’s older brother Angel is hiding a terrible secret about his sexuality, and her younger brother Red possesses a capacity for violence that frightens even the members of his own brutal family. Together Isaac and Kemper build a refuge on their beloved, wild Gulf Coast. But their paradise is short-lived; as the coast is rocked by the storms of summer, the country is gripped by the furor preceding World War I, and the Woolsack family’s rivalries come to a bloody head. We revealed this book cover back in November and can’t wait for readers to get a look inside in July!

South Toward Home by Julia Reed (July 31)

In considering the pleasures and absurdities of her native culture, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, “It’s the juxtapositions that get you down here.” These juxtapositions are, for Julia, the soul of the South, and in her warmhearted and funny new book, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life―taking us everywhere from dive bars and the Delta Hot Tamale Festival to an impromptu shindig on a Mississippi River sandbar. She writes about the region’s music and food, its pesky critters and prodigious drinking habits, its inhabitants’ penchant for making their own fun―and, crucially, their gift for laughing at themselves. With her distinctive voice and knowing eye, Julia also provides her take on the South’s more embarrassing characteristics, from the politics of lust and the persistence of dry counties to the “seemingly bottomless propensity for committing a whole lot of craziness in the name of the Lord.” No matter what, she writes, “My fellow Southerners have brought me the greatest joy―on the page, over the airwaves, around the dinner table, at the bar or, hell, in the checkout line.”

OUT IN AUGUST

Rush by Lisa Patton (August 21)

When Lilith Whitmore, the well-heeled house corp president of Alpha Delta Beta appoints recent empty-nester Wilda to the Rush Advisory Board, Wilda can hardly believe her luck. What’s more, Lilith suggests their daughters, both incoming freshman at Ole Miss, room together. What Wilda doesn’t know is that it’s all part of Lilith’s plan to ensure her own daughter receives an Alpha Delt bid—no matter what. Smart, sweet Cali Watkins is the perfect potential new sorority member, except she’s missing the most important ingredient of all—pedigree. With her lack of family money, Cali’s chances of membership are already razor thin, but she’s got an even bigger problem: she’s hiding dark family secrets. For 25 years, Miss Pearl has been housekeeper and a second mother to the Alpha Delt girls, even though it reminds her of a painful part of her past she’ll never forget. When an opportunity for promotion arises, it seems a natural fit. But Lilith Whitmore slams her Prada heel down fast, crushing Miss Pearl’s hopes of a better future. When Wilda and the girls find out, they devise a plan destined to change Alpha Delta Beta—and maybe the entire Greek system—forever.

The Line That Held Us by David Joy (August 14)

When Darl Moody went hunting after a monster buck he’s chased for years, he never expected he’d accidentally shoot a man digging ginseng. Worse yet, he’s killed a Brewer, a family notorious for vengeance and violence. With nowhere to turn, Darl calls on the help of the only man he knows will answer: his best friend, Calvin Hooper. But when Dwayne Brewer comes looking for his missing brother and stumbles onto a blood trail leading straight back to Darl and Calvin, a nightmare of revenge rips apart their world. The Line That Held Us is a story of friendship and family, a tale balanced between destruction and redemption where the only hope is to hold on tight, clenching to those you love. What will you do for the people who mean the most, and what will you grasp to when all that you have is gone? The only certainty in a place so shredded is that no one will get away unscathed.

Cover photo of a Tennessee lake by Cambiodia from Flickr Creative Commons.