“In the Heart of Dixie, some things are better left unsaid”

The Education of Asa Paxton: Coming of Age in the Heart of Dixie offers an historic view of rural life in the 1930s South through the eyes of young adults – the self-proclaimed “Misfit Clique” – who suffer through puberty's awkward, embarrassing, and sometimes humorous moments. Asa emerges at seventeen a handsome young man, still an outcast because of the company his family keeps. Secrets soon collide with the force of a tornado, threatening to tear families apart and send the innocent to prison – or worse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After living in Ankara, Turkey, and Pittsburgh, Gary S. Minder landed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the beginning of school desegregation. He is one of nearly six hundred graduates from the powerhouse melting pot of Central High School. Over the years he has called Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Portland home before returning to Tuscaloosa in 2006.The Education of Asa Paxton is Gary S. Minder's debut novel and the first installment of the Haint Blue Series.

PRAISE

“Gary Minder is a fine storyteller and a sensitive student of the human condition. This is as powerful a debut novel as you are likely to read, written with a deep sense of character and place. Bravo!”

—Frye Gaillard, author of Go South to Freedom and co-author of The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance

“‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is good advice to remember when it comes to The Education of Asa Paxton. What looks like a sweet coming-of-age historical novel is laced with enough Southern Gothic atmosphere to make William Faulkner proud. ...Humor goes a long way in balancing the experience of a heavier read, and Gary S. Minder strikes a harmonious chord with the sprinkling of jokes amid the serious social issues.”

–Carrie Dalby, Alabama Writers’ Forum