Soil

By: Jamie Kornegay

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

A darkly comic debut novel by an independent book-seller about an idealistic young farmer who moves his family to a Mississippi flood basin, suffers financial ruin - and becomes increasingly paranoid he's being framed for murder.

It all began with a simple dream. An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinced his wife Sandy to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel where Jacob could run free and Jay could pursue the dream of a new and progressive agriculture for the 21st century. He did not know that within a year he'd be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm or that his wife and son would leave him to pick up the pieces by himself.

©2015 Jamie Kornegay (P)2015 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Mississippi has done it again, given us yet another brilliant writer. Welcome, Jamie Kornegay, to a long line of kick-ass storytellers. Soil is one of the most memorable novels I've read in years, with a killer story told in killer language. Highly, highly recommended." (Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter)

"Jamie Kornegay's prose is as rich and fertile as the Mississippi Delta landscape that spreads across the pages of Soil. It is poetic, both in its language and in the soulful complexity of its characters, all of them fallen and trudging along the hard worn path of redemption on dirty hands and knees." (Michael F. Smith, author of Rivers)

True Southern Gothic.

Jay is bats@&t crazy. But it's the kind of crazy that damn near everyone who lives south of the equator can relate to. There is the scene early in the book where Jay has an intimate encounter with the riverbank, and oddly I could appreciate it. Boy what a book. Get off the fence and sink your feet into the mud. You will not regret it.

Excellent first novel!

Where does Soil rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top 10

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. Wasn't sure how deep the author would take it....a progression into insanity takes many twists and turns. The character of the wife was very well developed. She is the fulcrum.

What about Brian Hutchinson’s performance did you like?

Loved that he didn't know how to pronounce the fish---spelled "crappie"

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

?????

Any additional comments?

I loved that his insanity sprouted from his desire to grow vegetables organically!

Good, but hardly comical...

a few moments of dark humor, but the book is pure tragedy.

The reader was good, but he is the third narrator of Southern Gothic (including the great narrator Tom Stetschule) that I have listened to that cannot correctly pronounce two types of fish that are common to the deep south and those are "crappie" and "bream" (pronounced like croppie and brim).

I really look forward to more books by this author. Another great one writing about my home state, Mississippi. I miss Larry Brown, but there are some great writers who have found their way to Oxford (or Madrid as it is in this book)!