| Author | Taylor Brown |
|---|---|
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Published | 2024 |
Rednecks is a 2024 historical fiction novel by Taylor Brown based on the West Virginia coal wars.
The novel focuses on the camp doctor "Doc Moo" Muhanna, Frank Hugham, an African-American World War I veteran and coal miner, and Frank's grandmother Beulah. It opens with the Battle of Matewan, a major inflection point in the West Virginia coal wars.
Gabino Iglesias called it "a superb historical drama full of violence and larger-than-life characters that chronicles the events of 1920 and 1921 as it explores the people and reasons behind the largest labor uprising in American history." [1] In Plateau Magazine, Marianne Leek wrote that "it’s Brown’s richly drawn imagined characters that add a layer of poetic beauty and complexity to this novel." [2] It won the 2025 Southern Book Prize. [3]