Blood and Soil
When Tony, a closeted Columbia undergraduate, takes a summer job at a remote safari park in Appalachia, he hopes for a break from city life-and a chance to keep his distance. But in a place where grudges run deep and outsiders are treated with suspicion, his presence stirs more than curiosity. Then he meets Jake, a rugged, guarded local with a quiet intensity and little patience for naivety. As their unlikely friendship deepens, it begins to fray the edges of everything they've been taught to believe.
The fragile trust between them is soon tested by three brutal deaths and a cover-up that implicates the very institutions meant to protect. Faced with a racist sheriff, a fearful community, and their own inherited biases, Tony and Jake must decide whether silence is safer than truth-and what they're willing to risk for justice.
With poetic restraint and sharp emotional insight, Blood and Soil explores the weight of history and the complicated legacies of race, class, and masculinity in America's shadowlands. It's a novel about the stories we inherit, the lies we tell to survive, and what happens when two very different men discover a shared sense of moral urgency.
For readers drawn to taut, character-driven fiction with social resonance-this is a story that lingers.
Author: Vinny Cusenza
Publisher: Pen & Pencil Press
Published: 07/01/2025
Pages: 332
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.74d
ISBN: 9798218618476
About the Author
Cusenza, Vinny: - Vinny Cusenza is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. After more than three decades working in publishing, he brings his deep appreciation for language, character, and storytelling to his debut novel, Blood and Soil. With a background shaped by literary tradition and a personal commitment to exploring themes of identity, belonging, and justice, Vinny's fiction is both emotionally resonant and socially insightful. Blood and Soil is his first published work of fiction.