The Watersmith - Paperback

by Yance Wyatt (Author)

When hard-drinking handyman Jack Calloway discovers an old moonshine still behind the Smoky Mountain cabin he plans to flip, his teenage son dares him to get it running. Jack accepts-- until his wife, Jolene, tries to sabotage the first batch and is horribly burned in the process. Wracked with guilt, Jack sends their son away and moves Jolene into the cabin to recover while he tries to sober up. Doctors diagnose Jolene with a rare post-traumatic dementia that responds only to scent-- smell being the strongest trigger of memory. Desperate to help, Jack begins distilling essential oils from her favorite flowers, searching for the one that might bring her back. When a fleeting moment of clarity during a visit from their son slips away again, Jack grows frantic-- willing to distill anything in his grasp to reach her. A haunting, tender tale of love, regret, and the volatile bonds between parents and children, The Watersmith is a story of oil and water, memory and mercy-- and how far one man will go to bring his family home.

Author Biography

Yance Wyatt is from Nashville, Tennessee, or thereabouts. He studied fiction at the University of Southern California, where he now teaches writing. His stories have appeared in dozens of nationally circulated literary journals and received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. He lives with his wife and son in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The Watersmith is his first novel.