Jeannette Walls wrote one of my favourite memoirs, The Glass Castle. If you have not read, I suggest you remedy that situation. It is a fascinating story about how she grew up poor with highly dysfunctional parents, and how she and her siblings took care of each other and helped each other to become successful adults. Since The Glass Castle, Walls has turned to writing fiction. Hang the Moon is her latest novel, set in Prohibition era Virginia and featuring a resilient protagonist that reminds me of Walls herself. I enjoyed reading this novel and I recommend it to fans of historical fiction.

The protagonist of Hang the Moon is Sallie Kincaid, the second daughter of the big man of Claiborne Country, Virginia, Hank “the Duke” Kincaid. Sallie’s mother, Annie, was the Duke’s second wife, whom the Duke killed when Sallie was just three years old, whether in self-defence or as murder is anyone’s guess. When Sallie is eight years old, and the Duke is on his third wife, Jane, who finally gave him the son that he always wanted, Eddie, she is sent away to live with her aunt. If you are getting the references to Henry VIII and his six wives, this is not coincidental.

When Sallie is seventeen years old, Jane dies, and the Duke allows Sallie to come home. He has plans to marry her off, but Sallie, knowing how poorly marriage turned out for her own mother, does not ever want to get married. Instead, she wants to prove her worth to her father and convinces him to give her a job collecting rents from his tenants.

Being based on the English Tudor dynasty, Hang the Moon is not without its tragedies and Sallie finds herself in the position of being responsible for the Duke’s dynasty, which is built on illegal whiskey and bootlegging. Sallie wants to be a good person and do the right thing, but she knows that the only way she can support the community she has become responsible for is to keep up the bootlegging. Sallie finds herself up against a particularly overzealous Prohibition agent whose lawlessness leads to the lynching of a black man who was one of Sallie’s friends and tenants. It is difficult to read about.  I do not blame Sallie for bootlegging, and I can understand why even today some poor, rural communities remain anti-government.

Sallie also finds herself at war with another bootlegging family who holds a grudge against Sallie’s family for “cheating” them out of their land. This leads to murder, bombings and arson. It really is a wild ride. Sallie is clearly the Elizabeth I character of the novel, but she is a lot more likable and relatable. Sallie is a warm, caring person and you cannot help but root for her as she circumvents the law and challenges the societal norms of the time.