Title: The scapegoat
First published: 1980
Description: In a novel about casual and heedless acts that often lead to unthinkable results, Mary Lee Settle traces the fall of a West Virginia town that was first made rich by coal, then corrupted and destroyed by it. Set in 1912, the story propels readers with astonishing immediacy to a fateful day in a coal miners' strike in which relatives of the Beulah dynasty, only dimly aware of their blood ties, confront one another on opposing sides of the dispute. Emotions escalate to a frenzy of violence as Mother Jones, leader of the striking miners, calls for action in a community devastated by Southern resignation and by guilt associated with selling out to Eastern investors.
Subjects: Fiction, Coal mines and mining, Coal miners, Strikes and lockouts, Fiction, historical, West virginia, fiction, Large type books, Fiction, historical, general, Coal mining
Places: West Virginia