Secrets of Ash
By Josh Green
A Novel of War, Brotherhood, and Going Home Again
WINNER, literary fiction: IndieReader Discovery Awards, 2024
21st annual AMERICAN BOOK FEST: finalist (fiction)
HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL: shortlisted, runner-up (fiction)
GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR nominee, 2024
SILVER MEDAL, Military Writers Society of America, 2024 awards
4.4 stars on Goodreads
"A fabulous book. . . These are great characters." —NPR
Secrets of Ash is a riveting, fast-paced, and suspenseful novel of fraternal love and dark memories, told from the alternating points of view of two brothers who cross a lifetime, and a rugged mountain, to come to terms with themselves and each other.
After a checkered boyhood spent under a domineering father in a well-to-do Atlanta neighborhood, brothers Chase and Jack Lumpkin take separate paths. Older brother Jack, always the obedient one, his brother’s protector, becomes a nationally syndicated sports radio host, with all the trappings of success that come to the voice of Atlanta’s own “Morning Madness with Bachelor Jack.”
Chase, always the rebel, the troublemaker, joins the Army and finds himself in combat in Afghanistan. After sustaining wounds and receiving a Purple Heart, he returns to Georgia, where he retreats into the thickly forested mountains of Ash County, a deeply troubled man, suffering from PTSD and a gnawing conscience about a murder committed during the haze of war.
Meanwhile, Bachelor Jack falls victim to his own excesses. When an on-air interview with an NFL coach nearly ends in a brawl, he swears off his A-List lifestyle, takes a leave of absence, and heads to the high country to visit his brother.
But Chase is not home in his rustic cabin — he's in more trouble than they could ever have imagined.
What the Critics Say:
“A propulsive suspense novel, with enough twists and turns to keep you reading until dawn.” — ATLANTA magazine
“A lyrical meditation on brotherhood and trauma. Green has a great observational eye and a talent for an unusual turn of phrase.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS
“A compelling story of two brothers… whose fragile relationship is put to the ultimate test in the North Georgia mountains.” —ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION
“[A] finely written, intense, and powerful novel… Green unfolds [this] story with harrowing density and a raw-edged intimacy that is brutally compelling and deeply moving.”— INDIE READER
