Haircuts for the Dead

When twenty-one-year-old Hannah Gardner’s father sells the family farm, she is cast onto the streets of Sundown, Georgia, where, having left her fundamentalist church, she grapples with the weight of her family’s racist past. Working as a shampoo girl at a rinky-dink salon, Hannah tries to make ends meet cutting hair at the local funeral home. After finding herself in a precarious situation where she is raped by Hawkshaw Bales, a local criminal, Hannah is blackmailed by Bales to take custody of the resulting child. When Hannah is befriended by Margaret, the Black librarian, their interracial friendship develops into a love affair where Hannah finds the tenderness and protection she needs. Despite all the trials Hannah endures, she keeps a journal, her ＂Document of Life,＂ and records Bible verses to show that even when you turn away from ＂God’s steady light, He lives within you.＂ With each haircut she gives at the funeral home, Hannah sends her customers to the hereafter with honor.

William Walsh is the author of ten books and is the editor of the James Dickey Review. He teaches at Reinhardt University and directs the undergraduate creative writing program, as well as the low-residency MFA program. Walsh lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia. HAIRCUTS FOR THE DEAD is his second novel.