In the heart of the North Carolina Appalachian Mountain's, a summer of escape becomes a fight for survival in this gripping novel. Thirteen-year-old Boyd is sent to his grandfather’s farm after a schoolyard fight, where he’s expected to spend the summer working the land and praying. But Boyd has other plans. Alongside his best friend Roger, Boyd embarks on an adventure to find an abandoned trestle and explore a cave with personal significance. Their journey is fraught with obstacles—Boyd’s overbearing grandfather, Roger’s alcoholic father, a corrupt sheriff, and even a dangerous cougar that seems to be stalking them all summer. As the adults and institutions around him fail, Boyd is pushed to lie, steal, and risk everything for Roger’s safety. When the boys finally escape to their secret haven—the trestle cave—Boyd discovers that even triumph over evil often comes at a price.
Praise for Into the Night Woods
“In this impressive debut, E. Davis Enloe has the talent to create an utterly convincing twelve-year-old protagonist, and we cheer on young Boyd and his best friend Roger as they enter the bewildering world of adults, which includes the frightening and cunning Earl Daggett. Rich in period details and memorable characters, Into the Night Woods is a worthy novel that deserves a wide and appreciative audience.”
—Ron Rash, author of Serena and The Caretaker
“Set in 1961, Davis Enloe’s debut novel, Into the Night Woods, perfectly captures the way a boy of thirteen sees and navigates the world. Boyd Cash, whose best friend suffers increasing physical abuse from his father, finds that he is capable of actions he never could have imagined until his loyalty to his friend, Roger, exposes a darker and more reckless part of himself. Inevitably, Boyd makes that timeless journey out of innocence into a state of experience and emerges from the beautifully rendered North Carolina woods with a newfound knowledge of himself that Enloe, with great skill, makes us suspect will slowly turn into wisdom.”
—Marlin Barton, author of Children of Dust
“Like Stephen King in The Body, Davis Enloe transports us back to the idyllic world of small town boyhood only to remind us that the times are never so innocent. Packed with indelible characters and a melancholy nostalgia, Into the Night Woods is a bittersweet Southern coming of age story about friendship, injustice, and how hard it is, at any age, to do the right thing.”
—Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels and Last Night at the Lobster
