What does the novel’s title mean? Consider how the physical setting of rural North Carolina impacts the people who live there and the action in the novel.

How does the use of flashback and other nonlinear elements impact the novel?

Though the novel employs several different narrators, many characters who are central to the plot and conflict—such as Ben and Julie Hall and Carson Chambliss—do not narrate. Why does the author rely on secondary characters to narrate instead?