They called her mudpuppy — a bottom-feeder, something that crawls through the dark and never comes clean.

A gripping and unforgettable story of one woman’s fight to survive in Depression-era Appalachia.

Jenny Cafaro is an Appalachian author and international bestselling writer whose award-winning memoir Run, Girls earned a Kirkus recommendation, an IPPY Gold Medal, and more.

Inspired by a true story from coal country.

Bessie’s marriage made the front page in 1931 — set beside the murders and crimes — and that told you everything Blackwater County thought of Bessie Winter.

The name stuck.

Bessie Winter was as poor as dirt and country as cornbread, raised in a newspaper-lined shack in the hollers of Appalachian coal country. The oldest of eight, she was fifteen when a man older than her daddy set his sights on her.

No one expected her to survive.
Let alone matter.

But she did.

Now, at the end of her life, Bessie is ready to tell it true — not the story the town chose, but what really happened the night her husband died… and the choice no woman should ever have to make.

In a world that offered no mercy, Bessie carved out her own kind of grace.

The Bible of Blackwater County is a gripping, morally complex novel of survival, faith, and the brutal cost of staying alive — inspired by the life of the author’s great-grandmother.

For readers of Barbara Kingsolver, Silas House, Donald Ray Pollock, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and Serena by Ron Rash, in the raw tradition of Appalachian storytelling like Where the Crawdads Sing.

Perfect for book clubs. Includes discussion questions.