All the Living (2009)

All the Living by C.E. Morgan

It may be set in 1984, 
but All the Living feels like a long-lost story from the dust bowl. 
Aloma, an embittered aspiring pianist, moves 
to her boyfriend's dusty, dried-out 
Kentucky tobacco farm after his parents are killed in a car accident. 
Once there, she struggles with an 
incessant restlessness, constantly searching for a way out — a way 
out of her circumstances, even a way out of her own skin. The novel's quietly limited scope focuses almost entirely on Aloma's internal growth. 
As Aloma reconciles her own sad past with newfound notions of love and happiness, C.E. Morgan achieves a delicate poignancy and grace. A–