Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Wettest County in the World (Lawless) by Matt Bondurant - Available

The Wettest County in the World (Lawless)

A Novel Based on a True Story

by Matt Bondurant
Erik Steele
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Based on the true story of his grandfather and two granduncles, Matt Bondurant's novel is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County during Prohibition and after. The brothers played a central role in a major conspiracy trial and its violent end. In 1935, Sherwood Anderson, working on a magazine story, finds himself driving along the dusty red roads trying to find the brothers and break the silence that shrouds Franklin County. In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men—their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires—to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 1, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792759188
      • File size: 305376 KB
      • Duration: 10:36:11

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Franklin County, Virginia, was a hotbed of moonshine--the wettest spot in the country--during and after Prohibition. The Bondurant boys--Forrest, Howard, and Jack--were well known throughout the county as moonshiners. Journalist Sherwood Anderson, author of WINESBURG, OHIO, was in the twilight of his career when he broke the silence and exposed "The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy." Author Matt Bondurant uses undocumented family lore and quotes from Anderson's writings to weave a tale of desperate times and desperate lives. Erik Steele's narration is straightforward and engrossing. His careful delivery helps the listener stay with a story that meanders through time, taking side trips into Anderson's own history. Steele's tone and pace give this historical novel the weight of truth. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 9, 2008
      This fictionalized tale of Depression-era bootlegging from Bondurant (The Third Translation
      ) enlists the help of Winesburg, Ohio
      author Sherwood Anderson to investigate Bondurant family lore. In 1928, a pair of thieves accost Bondurant’s real life great-uncle Forrest at his Franklin County, Va., restaurant. They’re after a large cache of bootlegging money and end up cutting Forrest’s throat. The story of his survival and his trek to a hospital 12 miles away has taken on mythical proportions by the time Sherwood Anderson arrives in Franklin County in 1934 to research a magazine piece on the area’s prolific moonshiners. Soon after Anderson’s arrival, two anonymous men appear at the same hospital, one with legs “meticulously shattered” from ankle to hip, the other one castrated, with the by-products of the deed deposited in a jar of moonshine. The arc of the story lies between the attack on Forrest and that on the two men. Bondurant endows his gritty story with all the puzzle-solving satisfactions of a mystery. It’s a gripping, relentless tale, delivered in no-nonsense prose.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check Out What's Being Checked Out Right Now