The Last Ballad: A Novel [Paperback]

Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Literary Fiction

Named a Best Book of 2017 by the Chicago Public Library and the American Library Association

“Wiley Cash reveals the dignity and humanity of people askingfor a fair shot in an unfair world.”

- Christina Baker Kline, author ofA Piece of the WorldandOrphan Train

TheNew York Timesbestselling author of the celebratedA Land More Kind Than HomeandThis Dark Road to Mercyreturns with this eagerly awaited new novel, set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events. Thechronicle of an ordinary woman’s struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill,The Last Balladis a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice, with the emotional power of Ron Rash’sSerena, Dennis Lehane’sThe Given Day, and the unforgettable filmsNorma RaeandSilkwood.

Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill’s owners—the newly arrived Goldberg brothers—white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May’s best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it’s the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.

When the union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a taste of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise. But the milĂ!