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An Author Tethered To A Bleak Mountain Hometown

Author of The Barrowfields, Phillip Lewis.
Phillip Lewis
Author of The Barrowfields, Phillip Lewis.
Author of The Barrowfields, Phillip Lewis.
Credit Phillip Lewis
Author of The Barrowfields, Phillip Lewis.

In the novel “The Barrowfields” (Hogarth/2017) a character named Henry grows up revering his literary father, a man who ensconced the family in a strange house on a hillside in western North Carolina. But his father’s dark unraveling pushes Henry away.

He abandons the sister and mother he had promised to protect and vows to stay away from his gloomy mountain hometown forever. But the ties of family and home prove stronger than Henry’s will to escape them both.

Author Phillip Lewis drew emotional truth from his own experiences as a teenage father and the son of a depressive alcoholic to write this debut novel.HostFrank Stasio talks with Lewis about the bookand how his own personal history colored the story.​ Lewis will be reading from the novel at the Hickmans Crossroads Library in Calabash, North Carolina onThursday, May 4 at 3 p.m., and at the South Main Book Company in Salisbury, North Carolina on Friday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with writer Phillip Lewis about his debut novel, "The Barrowfields".

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio

Jennifer Brookland is a temporary producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.