Howl Mountain, North Carolina is a place where people are “born hard.” Rory Docherty returns there after a tour in the Korean War and takes up as a whiskey runner.

The story is chock-full of Appalachian folklore. The most well documented is NASCAR’s roots in bootlegging, but there are also potion-making healers, and snake handling revivalists. Fans of Luis Alberto Urrea and Michael Ondaatje will enjoy Gods of Howl Mountain.