By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

Salvation on Sand Mountain

Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Contributors

By Dennis Covington

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD
  2. ebook $15.99 $20.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around August 11, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A haunting exploration of faith, from a preacher convicted of attempted murder to a first-hand account of holiness serpent handling–“One of the best books on American religion from the last 25 years” (Chicago Tribune)

For New York Times reporter Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic assignment-covering the trial of an Alabama pastor convicted of attempting to murder his wife with poisonous snakes-would evolve into a headlong plunge into a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith: the world of holiness snake handling.Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington’s unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith-an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes.

  • "One of the best books on American religion from the last 25 years...Neither a straightforward account of conversion nor a detached observer's report, the book is wildly personal, compassionate but unsentimental, at times outrageously funny, and ambivalent at its core."
    Chicago Tribune

On Sale
Aug 11, 2009
Page Count
288 pages
Publisher
Da Capo Press
ISBN-13
9780306818363

Dennis Covington

About the Author

Dennis Covington is the author of two novels and three nonfiction books. His book Salvation on Sand Mountain was a National Book Award finalist, and his articles have been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, Vogue, and many other periodicals. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and earned a BA from the University of Virginia and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he studied under Raymond Carver. He currently teaches creative writing at Texas Tech University.

Learn more about this author