About the Cover

If you like the original woodcut on the cover of Witches on the Road Tonight, check out the website for the amazingly talented artist, Martin Mazorra, at Cannon Ball Press

Witches on the Road Tonight

Independent Publisher's Book Awards Gold Medal for Literary Fiction

Boston Globe Best Books of 2011

New York Times Editor's Choice

By the best-selling author of The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman's new and most ambitious novel to date, Witches on the Road Tonight uncovers the secrets and lies that echo through three generations of one Appalachian family. It is a deeply human, urgent exploration of America's doomed love affair with fear.

On the eve of World War II, eight-year-old Eddie Alley lies in bed watching his first horror movie, hand-cranked and flickering on the bare wall of a backwoods cabin. In 2011, Eddie's daughter, Wallis, an anchorwoman for a twenty-four hour news channel, lies in bed with a stranger, spinning ghost stories. Between these two nights winds the story of the Alley family – Eddie's mother, Cora, an Appalachian mountain witch who slips out of her skin after nightfall; Captain Casket, Eddie's alter ego, a campy 1970's TV horror-movie host; and Jasper, the orphaned boy Eddie brings home, who is determined to destroy Eddie's illusions even if it means destroying himself.

Deftly moving from the rural, Depression-era South to modern New York City, Holman teases out the dark compulsions and desperate longings that can blur the line between love and betrayal. Witches on the Road Tonight is an unflinching story that digs at the roots of myth – both familial and societal – and beautifully renders our perpetual yearning to make sense of the past in our present.

Praise For Witches On The Road Tonight

“Mysterious, beautiful, and immediately engrossing, Witches on the Road Tonight is a tour de force of meticulous research brought urgently to life by headlong, transporting prose.” — Jennifer Egan, Author of A Visit from the Goon Squad

“Three generations of witches in a wickedly powerful American epic. An Appalachian conjure woman; a soul-bewildered TV-host vampire; a New York news anchor trying desperately to make peace with the demons pursuing her: the characters are spellbinding and the prose crackles throughout. This is a tale told by a sorceress.” — George Dawes Green, Author of Ravens and Founder of The Moth

“Vibrantly atmospheric, Holman's stealthily ambiguous novel of suspense glitters with the force of sins and indiscretions unbounded by time.” — Carol Haggas, Booklist

“Witches on the Road Tonight is a terrific read – scary, audacious, and smart. Sheri Holman casts a spell from the first page, one that will keep the reader entranced to the very end. What are you afraid of? Pick up Witches and find out.” — Valerie Martin, Author of The Confessions of Edward Day

“Witches on the Road Tonight is Sheri Holman's most accomplished work to date. Beautifully written and brilliantly realized, it is also moving, insightful, compellingly readable, and spooky. Holman's characters are real and resonant and disturbing in the way that makes fiction great.” — David Liss, Author of The Devil's Company

“Heartbreaking... Holman investigates a dynasty of fear, mysticism, guilt, and love, beginning in Depression-era Appalachia through to contemporary Manhattan... [and] maps out the devastating consequences of sin and circumstance.” — Publisher's Weekly