by Vinny Cusenza (Author)
When Tony, a closeted Columbia undergraduate, takes a summer job at a remote safari park in Appalachia, he hopes for a break from city life-and a chance to keep his distance. But in a place where grudges run deep and outsiders are treated with suspicion, his presence stirs more than curiosity. Then he meets Jake, a rugged, guarded local with a quiet intensity and little patience for naivety. As their unlikely friendship deepens, it begins to fray the edges of everything they've been taught to believe.
The fragile trust between them is soon tested by three brutal deaths and a cover-up that implicates the very institutions meant to protect. Faced with a racist sheriff, a fearful community, and their own inherited biases, Tony and Jake must decide whether silence is safer than truth-and what they're willing to risk for justice.
With poetic restraint and sharp emotional insight, Blood and Soil explores the weight of history and the complicated legacies of race, class, and masculinity in America's shadowlands. It's a novel about the stories we inherit, the lies we tell to survive, and what happens when two very different men discover a shared sense of moral urgency.
For readers drawn to taut, character-driven fiction with social resonance-this is a story that lingers.
Number of Pages: 332
Dimensions: 0.74 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN
Publication Date: July 01, 2025
