Strange birds in the tree of heaven

the long version

"In Karen Salyer McElmurray's debut novel, we are invited to explore the boundaries between beliefs, desires, obsessions, and madness. Set in Mining Hollow, Kentucky, we meet Ruth Blue Wallen; her husband, Earl; and their son, Andrew. Ruth longs to know God, the only escape she can find in a world that has shown her spiritual, emotional, and sensual defeat. Earl yearns for the music-making of his past, now forgone in order to make a living as a coal miner. Andrew desires the love of a boyhood friend, an expression of love considered sinful in rural Kentucky. And, with the divinely inspired yet tormenting help of his mother, in a world of deeply and tragically conflicting desires, Andrew must choose to live or die - he must choose an uncertain love or nothing at all."--BOOK JACKET.