New memoir recounts how Appalachian author broke a generational cycle of abuse

A new memoir, In the Shadow of the Valley (Little A, $24.95), examines what it was like to deal with physical and mental abuse, as well as severe substance abuse, in Appalachian rural Kentucky in the 1980s. Bobi Conn, a debut author, interrogates her own assumptions and attitudes growing up, and narrates how she was able to escape the cycle of abuse and process her haunting past in a book Amazon named a "Best Book of the Month" in the Biographies and Memoirs category.

Conn wrote in the memoir that she rewrote the story many times over the years, and each time saw it more clearly: "With each revision, I understood that although many people had quieted me, even whipped me into silence, I still had words they could not take away from me."

"At times, the narrative is fragmented and disconnected, perhaps due to Conn’s struggle to make sense of it all, but the author is to be commended for her courage and determination to change her life circumstances," according to Kirkus Reviews, which called the book "an inspiration for those attempting to come to terms with abuse."

Appalachian novelist Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne writes: “From the first sentence, I smiled in recognition of a natural storyteller, one 'born and bound to this land,' who is a keen observer and a loving inhabitant of the land of which she writes. This book is a wonder—a dark, tragic Appalachian ballad come to full, lush life."