Tennessee is a state of dramatic contrasts, a land where the misty, ancient peaks of the Smoky Mountains give way to the vibrant blues heart of Memphis. Its literature is carved from this rugged terrain and complex history, echoing with the voices of prophets and outcasts, lawyers and storytellers. Reading a novel set here is to feel the weight of the past in its soil, to navigate the moral wilderness of its backwoods, and to hear the soul of a city in its music. This list is your guide to the literary landscape of the Volunteer State, one unforgettable journey at a time.
These novels are steeped in the dark, elemental power of the East Tennessee landscape. They are stark, often violent tales of outcasts, prophets, and solitary figures whose lives are shaped by the unforgiving beauty and profound isolation of the mountains.
McCarthy's debut novel interweaves the lives of a young boy, the bootlegger who unknowingly killed his father, and an old man living in harmony with nature. Set in the mountains of East Tennessee between the World Wars, it is a haunting, lyrical elegy for a disappearing way of life, where human violence unfolds against a backdrop of untamed wilderness.
This disturbing and powerful novel chronicles the descent of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed and violent man, into necrophilia and serial murder in the hills of Sevier County. As he is ostracized by society, he retreats into the caves and wilderness, the remote Tennessee landscape mirroring his internal desolation and providing a stage for his horrific acts.
A quintessential work of Southern Gothic, this novel follows Francis Tarwater, a young man raised in the isolated backwoods of Tennessee by his fanatically religious great-uncle. After the old man's death, Tarwater wages a fierce internal war between his prophetic destiny and the secular, rational world, a struggle that is both terrifying and darkly comic.
In rural 1940s Tennessee, a young carpenter, Nathan Winer, unknowingly goes to work for the demonic man who murdered his father years earlier. What unfolds is a powerful, haunting story of good versus evil, vengeance, and love, steeped in the dark, brooding atmosphere of its Middle Tennessee setting.
From the poignant nostalgia of Knoxville to the rollicking underbelly of Memphis, these novels capture the unique character of Tennessee's cities. They are stories of memory and loss, of societal bonds and alienation, where the urban landscape shapes the soul.
Agee's posthumous, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a deeply poignant and autobiographical account of a family's grief in Knoxville, around 1915. Told through lyrical prose, it follows young Rufus Follet and his family in the immediate aftermath of his father's sudden, accidental death, masterfully capturing the raw, bewildering experience of loss through the eyes of a child.
Set in 1950s Knoxville, this sprawling, Joycean novel follows Cornelius Suttree, a man who has abandoned a life of privilege to live among the derelicts and outcasts on the city's decaying riverfront. It is a profound, darkly humorous, and poetic exploration of alienation, mortality, and the search for meaning on the fringes of society.
This Pulitzer Prize-winner centers on Phillip Carver, a middle-aged man living in New York who is called back to Memphis by his sisters to stop their elderly father from remarrying. The summons forces Phillip to confront the ghosts of his Southern upbringing and the intricate, often suffocating, power dynamics of his Tennessee family.
Faulkner's last and most comedic novel is a picaresque tale of an eleven-year-old boy who joins two roguish companions on an illicit joyride in a "borrowed" automobile from Mississippi to Memphis in 1905. The city serves as the stage for their misadventures, from a stay in a brothel to a high-stakes horse race, providing a crash course in adult complexities.
These novels explore Tennessee as a crucible—a place of immense challenges that test the spirit and forge new identities. They are stories of war and social conflict, of young people finding their voice, and of idealism clashing with brutal reality.
Based on the historical Black Patch Tobacco Wars, this novel follows an idealistic young lawyer who becomes entangled with a violent association of tobacco farmers fighting a corporate monopoly in early 20th-century Kentucky and Tennessee. It is a powerful examination of how a quest for justice can curdle into extremism and moral decay.
Set in the mountains of East Tennessee during the Civil War, this novel follows a fierce young Confederate sympathizer whose world is turned upside down when his own brother joins the Union army. It is a gripping exploration of the divided loyalties that tore apart families and communities in a region with strong Unionist sentiment.
In 1912, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston leaves her comfortable life to teach impoverished children in a remote mission school in the Smoky Mountains. Her journey is a profound test of faith, courage, and understanding as she navigates the unique culture, hardships, and deep-seated traditions of the Appalachian community of Cutter Gap.
In a small, rural Tennessee town, three outcast friends navigate their senior year of high school. Dill, the son of a disgraced snake-handling preacher, Lydia, a fashion blogger desperate to escape, and Travis, a gentle giant, must confront the legacies of family, faith, and poverty as they fight for a future on their own terms.
These contemporary novels use Tennessee as the backdrop for high-stakes drama, from tense courtroom battles to ecological wonders that challenge a community's beliefs. They are stories that grapple with modern problems in a distinctly Southern setting.
In this classic legal thriller, an eleven-year-old boy from Memphis witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer and becomes the sole keeper of a deadly secret. Soon, Mark Sway finds himself caught between the mob and the FBI, his only ally a tough, courageous Memphis lawyer. It is a gripping page-turner set against the city's authentic urban backdrop.
A young, idealistic Memphis lawyer, fresh out of law school, takes on a corrupt and powerful insurance company in a seemingly impossible David-versus-Goliath courtroom battle. Rudy Baylor's fight for a dying young man's family is a compelling drama that critiques corporate greed within the Tennessee legal system.
A restless young woman in rural Tennessee stumbles upon a silent, blazing miracle on her family's mountain: millions of monarch butterflies, bizarrely overwintering far from their home. This ecological anomaly brings scientists, tourists, and the media to her small Appalachian town, forcing a collision between faith, science, and a community's way of life.
From the gothic shadows of its mountains to the vibrant, complicated heart of its cities, the literary landscape of Tennessee is as rich and varied as the state itself. These novels show a place of profound contradictions—of deep faith and shocking violence, of suffocating tradition and the desperate yearning for escape. The stories of Tennessee are, ultimately, American stories, offering unforgettable journeys into a land that continues to haunt and inspire.