In The Fields of Fatherless Children

“Vivid, atmospheric storytelling, steeped in regional traditions.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Steele conjures a stark sense of place, depicting the strip-mined landscape . . . [A] ravishing story.” ⁠—Publishers Weekly

“Steele gives eloquent voice to the hardships and resilience of rural Appalachian women . . . This is Barbara Kingsolver and Sharyn McCrumb territory, and Steele stakes her own solid claim in this fertile soil. While reflecting the era’s social tumult, the novel also offers a timeless story about women’s generational ties and the damage wrought by men’s wars.” —Booklist

“Here is a novel both compelling and meditative, both tender and gritty, and wholly remarkable for the way it conjures a place and time brought to life with vivid sensory details, raw emotion, and complexity. Pamela Steele is a wonderful writer who allows us to luxuriate in precise language and gives us characters we will long cherish. I loved every page of this lovely novel.” —Silas House, author of Southernmost

“Among the ranks of contemporary writers, there remain some who know how to name—in the old ways—the confounding world around us. Pamela Steele is one such writer. She has listened closely to the voices most have forgotten. She has looked hard and long at the graceful, violent homeplace of her people. Her words unfurl like poems, delivered in dreams and visions and communions with the dead. In The Fields of Fatherless Children offers the reader a tale of survival, a geography of wounds, a multi-generational cartography of how to bear our scars and carry on.” —Glenn Taylor, author of The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart

“Pamela Steele is a masterful storyteller, at home on the shelves of the best contemporary Appalachian literature. If hope is a thing with feathers, its human embodiment is her heroine June, unstoppable in her quest to right a devastating wrong and make herself whole again. In the Fields of Fatherless Children is a page-turner, barreling forward with urgency while also inviting the reader to pause and savor the powerful moments that reveal the depths of human resilience.” —Erin Keane, CCO at Salon and author of Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me

“In the Fields of Fatherless Children is full of drama and suspense, all of it happening in the most beautifully drawn picture of the West Virginia mountains in the turbulent Vietnam war days you could ever hope for. The voices are sharp and true, and Steele moves us amongst them with a hand as steady and gentle as a funeral home usher’s. This one was over before I was ready; sad for it to end, grateful for its existence.” —Robert Gipe, author of Trampoline