In Michael Farris Smith’s latest novel, Salvage This World (Little, Brown), a young woman returns home with her child to her ghost-haunted father, while a religious extremist hunts the storm ridden territory to find the girl who may be the region’s savior.

In the hurricane-ravaged bottomlands of South Mississippi, where stores are closing and jobs are few, a fierce zealot has gained a foothold, capitalizing on the vulnerability of a dwindling population and a burning need for hope. As she preaches and promises salvation from the light of the pulpit, in the shadows she sows the seeds of violence.

Elsewhere, Jessie and her toddler, Jace, are on the run across the Mississippi/Louisiana line, in a resentful return to her childhood home and her desolate father. Holt, Jace’s father, is missing and hunted by a brutish crowd, and an old man witnesses the wrong thing in the depths of night. In only a matter of days, all of their lives will collide, and be altered, in the maelstrom of the changing world.

Salvage This World journeys into the heart of a region growing darker and less forgiving, and asks how we keep going—what do we hold onto—in a land where God has fled.

A Garden & Gun Top Reads Pick of 2023.

New York Times review here.

Michael Farris Smith is the author of the previous novels Nick, Blackwood, The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers.

He has written the feature-film adaptations for Desperation Road and The Fighter, (titled for the screen as Rumble Through the Dark).

Blues/rock musician Nikki Hill, originally from Durham, NC, has honed her gritty blues/rock/punk style after years living in musical Mississippi River towns such as St. Louis, New Orleans, and, currently, Memphis, TN.

Her releases include the EP Soul Meets Country, and the albums, Heavy Hearts, Hard Fists and Feline Roots.

“Think Tina Turner fronting AC/DC and you’ll have half of the picture. She’s a machine…you’ve got no excuse if you miss seeing her… Nikki Hill is a revelation, her band masters of rocket-fueled bluesy swing, her voice the beacon which calls you home… a vocal powerhouse who don’t mess around.”  — Rolling Stone

Tyler Tisdale is an Americana/country musician from the Hattiesburg, MS area. Working with producer Steve Azar, Tisdales’ releases include the singles, Holding Back Time, She’s the One, and the album If It’s All the Same to You.

His music has garnered 3+ million streams on Spotify, debuted at #7 on ITunes Best New Songs chart and peaked at 100k monthly listeners on Spotify.