The Secret-Keepers’ Stories by Joyce Lewis-Andrews

When all they had of value or power were the stories to pass along, the Williams family of Pittsburgh crafted their setbacks and comebacks into extraordinary tales, rebranding heartache into psalms, teasing proverbs out of misery, and creating a happily-ever-after out of what they could. A passion and purpose for coincidences, ironies, and storymaking ran through their blood. However, so did a curse and a couple of reasons for secret keeping.

Set in the hills and hazards of Northern Appalachia’s twentieth century, The Secret-Keepers’ Stories chronicles the lives of ten working-class Pittsburghers and the immigrant matriarch who raised them. Part memoir and part biography, it is a unique nonfiction American portrait of the storytellers and the storylines of the past that define who we are, who we’re not, who we were, and who we still might be.

This 66,262-word 227-page work of creative nonfiction (not including photo pages) is the debut novel of Joyce Lewis-Andrews, the last of their listeners.