Southern Cross the Dog (2013) by Bill Cheng
A boy’s journey through the Deep South after losing everything in the Great Flood of 1927.
“You won’t mistake “Southern Cross the Dog” for the work of an untalented writer. Mr. Cheng creates memorable characters, and he can cast a spell.” – Dwight Garner for the New York Times
“Cheng knows how to locate the uncanny folkloric resonance in these impoverished backwoods lives: their dirty bodies, gnawing hunger, tin-roofed shacks, moonshine, jujus and occasionally rapturous song.” – Benjamin Evans for The Telegraph