Natch - Darrell Kinsey - University of Iowa Press

The Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize, Winner

At the age of twenty-nine, tired of trying to get along with members of his crew and tired of the money going into somebody else's pocket, Natch begins working for himself, climbing and cutting down trees in the foothills of north Georgia. He believes he is fine with his life as it is. Then he meets Asha. When Asha discovers that she is expecting a child, the young couple struggles to convert the excitement of their early days together into a more steadfast companionship. Over the seasons of her pregnancy, Asha discovers that the freedom of their hardscrabble existence is overshadowed by the constant threat of misfortune and injury, and she finds herself timorous to bring a child into a world of endless struggle in which finding more work means finding more danger.