A retired English teacher has come home to Appalachia, a land of industrial disaster and natural beauty. He has been enticed by stories of Wildcat's transformation: the collective action embodied in Hotel Wildcat, as well as the artisanal pursuits springing to life in the old iron mill. But in returning, he must confront his dark memories: the lost love of his hippie-chic girlfriend, not to mention the lost trust between his middle-class family and the working-class community of Wildcat.

Written in the lyrical grit so characteristic of America's Rust Belt, Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance is literary fiction that reads like a memoir and cultural fiction that testifies to the redemptive potential of rediscovered friendship, the restorative power of nature, and our personal and communal capacity for transformation.