It’s 1976 in Bryson City, North Carolina. Barbara Parker, works at the textile mill. Sewing blue jeans at the plant is hard, tedious work, but Barbara’s got nobody else to rely on. If a living’s to be made, she has to make it. And even though she’s a strong woman—all the Parker women are strong—she struggles with memories that have stalked her for sixteen years, memories of a night that knocked her off the course of her life.
While Barbara’s doing everything in her power to make ends meet and put food on the table, her daughter, Carole Anne, is sneaking around and walking the railroad tracks to work at a bar that sells alcohol illegally. Sick of Bryson City and its poverty, Carole Anne wants nothing more than to save enough money to leave her hometown in the dust behind her.
When Carole Anne goes missing, Barbara faces some difficult choices. The one person who can help her find her daughter is the man she blames for the traumatic event that changed her life sixteen years earlier and left a permanent scar on her heart.
What will this mother do to find her daughter? Does Barbara have the strength to open the door to her past if that’s what it takes to keep her daughter safe?
Outbound Train is a wonderful book about a family of strong women. It’s written with perfect pacing, pitch, and the sweet rhythms of the South. Renea Winchester tells this story as only an insider can.
Bryson City
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