A young doctor returns to his hometown, determined to find the cause of the deaths of his wife and father. But a series of accidents at the local mine soon has him tracking a bizarre syndrome leading to deformity, madness and death. Joining him is a Boston-based pathologist, herself in town for the funeral of her best friend. With countless lives at stake, the two doctors race against the clock for answers.

"There's something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it's not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. The six couldn't be more different. Maddy, a devout member of the local megachurch. Kelly, the bookworm next door. James, a cynical burnout. Casey,...

In 1909, a nine-month-old puppy, trained unsuccessfully to be a hunting dog, finds a way to earn his keep when disaster strikes in the coal mine where his boy works.

Irish fiddler Sullivan escapes from prison after being implicated in the loss of Erasmus Kemp's slave ship, only to reencounter his nemesis in a struggle that pits Kemp's desire for wealth against Sullivan's advocacy for the disadvantaged.

When Maggie MacAuley returns to the small coal town of her childhood, she has no intention of staying. Her life is in Chicago now. There's nothing to keep her in Skingle Creek ... nothing but the discovery that a man who has lived most of his life for the children of Skingle Creek is no longer the hero of Maggie's childhood but seems destined to become the love of her life. In Maggie's quest for independence, she finds her greatest strength in sacrifice...

D. H. Lawrence declared in Women in Love, his masterpiece that presaged the erotic consciousness of the 20th century, "Let us hesitate no longer to state that the sensual passions and mysteries are equally sacred with the spiritual mysteries and passions." Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen, two sisters, serve as the main characters' eyes as Lawrence examines love, sex, passion, and marriage. The two very different sisters pursue passionate, scorching adventures...

Ivan Zoschenko, a high school football hero, returns to Coal Run years after a mining explosion that killed his father and devastated the community, intent on a showdown with former teammate Reese Raynor who is slated for release from prison where he spent fifteen years for beating his wife into a coma.

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two World Wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding--sometimes cruelly - succeeding generations to the place that made them.

When a shadow falls over the MacAuley family, newly-weds Jonathan and Maggie Stuart find their faith and newly discovered happiness tested in unforeseen ways. An abrupt summons to return from their honeymoon wrenches them from the joy of their early days of marriage and thrusts them into the midst of a family in anguish.

After the Alden siblings visit their Great-Aunt Jane's ranch in a mining town, there is a mysterious fire which damages three houses, but Benny's friend Mike notices a strange man in a blue hat in the paper and Mike and Benny suspect he may be the culprit.