The Risen: A Novel

Life hasn’t been easy for Eugene Matney. While his older brother, Bill, was deemed a golden child early in his life and went on to become a brilliant surgeon, Eugene is an alcoholic with a failed marriage and an estranged daughter he nearly killed in a drunken car accident. The brothers don’t share much these days, but they do share a transformative bit of personal history: a girl named Ligeia and the summer she dazzled them both—ultimately threatening Bill’s med-school ambitions. Ligeia and the brothers’ teenage fumblings by Panther Creek may have remained an unfortunate part of the past, but when a body appears in the creek bed decades after that fateful summer—a body the police identify as Ligeia—Eugene and Bill are forced to reckon with a secret that will nearly destroy them both.

Ron Rash’s straightforward prose perfectly reflects the rural North Carolina landscape and the claustrophobic shadows of small-town life, and he doesn’t shy away from leaving his characters in an unforgiving state of self-doubt and fear. Eugene’s end-of-the-road attempts at redemption raise uncomfortable questions about righteousness and regret, forcing readers to acknowledge the damage that stark moral certainty may inflict on innocent people.