Tawni O'Dell was born and raised in the Allegheny mountains of western Pennsylvania, "a beautiful ruined place where the rolling hills are pitted with dead gray mining towns like cigarette burns on a green carpet." She earned a degree in journalism from Northwestern University. A mother of two, she lives with her husband in Illinois. This is her first novel.

An intense, vibrant debut novel set among the back roads of Pennsylvania's mining country.

Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. He should be freed from his closed-minded, stricken coal town, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he's constantly reminded of just how messed up his life is.