Silas House is the author of five novels, including A Parchment of Leaves. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and a former commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered. House is the winner of the E. B. White Award, the Nautilus Award, and other honors. House serves as Writer-in-Residence at Lincoln Memorial University, where he also directs the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. Southernmost (Algonquin Books) is his most recent book. In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he risks losing everything: his wife; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he’d turned against years ago after Luke came out. And it is there, at the southernmost point of the country, that Asher and Justin discover a new way of thinking about the world, and a new way of understanding love.