Serena , a novel by Ron Rash. Rash an American poet, short story writer and novelist. Ron’s first book was The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth. Rash wrote One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River , and The World Made Straight and Rash’s latest edition is Serena and published by Publisher Ecco/Harper Collins.

Serena is about the newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travelling from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire in 1929. Serena is new to the mountains and George has already lived in the camp long to father an illegitimate child and the couple vowing no body will stand in their way especially those newly rallying around Teddy Roosevelt’s nascent environmental movement.

Serena, then shows herself to be the equal of any man, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness.

Serena learns that she will never bear a child, and plans to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Serena’s marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.