In 1961, a young girl and her grandmother set out from their Appalachian home on an odyssey to the city to retrieve the girl's uncle from the State Hospital where he was committed a few days earlier. While on their journey, the girl witnesses a crime which leads to a confrontation with the criminal and her grandmother's encounter with a charlatan TV evangelist. Along the way they meet con men, a clown, a killer, and common folk inhabitants of coal mining country. The events that follow pull the characters into an unexpected and unforgettable swirl of developments that take the odyssey to a gratifying conclusion.

Painted over a Southern Gothic canvas using a palette tinted with faint shades reminiscent of Flannery O'Conner, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Harper Lee, Both Sides of Bare Tree Mountain will leave a lasting impression. You won't want it to end.