“Hanson’s tender, lyrical prose offers an unsuspecting sense of solace and hope.” —Kirkus Review
"The End of Tennessee reminds me of the perfect pocketknife—sharp, clean, and always ready to save your life or cut you deep."—Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface: And Other Stories
"A shining reckoning of grief, love, abandon, and loss in Appalachia. Whistling like a crack and clear as crystal, I hear [Hanson] from every holler. The End of Tennessee will change you. Hanson is a real-deal gift."—Halle Hill, author of Good Women
"A gut-wrenching story of resilience and survival, beautifully anchored through the ferocity of Hanson's attachments to those she loves. Gorgeous, terrifying, impossible to put down." —Tessa Fontaine, author of The Electric Woman and The Red Grove: A Novel
Available here or at your favorite bookseller
About the The End of Tennessee
"Not a year before I ran away from home at seventeen, I stepped out of the house at dusk, still able to see shrub oaks thinned out for winter, fame flower, too, and dun clay so wet the smell of it seemed settled in my skin." So begins Rachel M. Hanson's debut memoir about growing up impoverished, uneducated, and surrounded by violence. In lyrical, fragmented prose, she lays bare the impossible choice between self-preservation and her love for five younger siblings for whom she had become a second mother. As the years pass, Hanson struggles with guilt for leaving her siblings as she slowly realizes she could not save them. The End of Tennessee is a testament to a sister's love—to resilience and determination—a book for anyone who has left one life to create another.