Those that mattered

Those That Mattered is a moving, deeply felt novel about a world that most people encounter only on the eleven o'clock news in the wake of a disaster, and about a woman fighting for respect and opportunity in one of the least hospitable places on earth. It is the story of Portia Crowe, granddaughter, daughter, and sister of coal miners, who returns from college to her West Virginia home, her emotional and physical touchstone. Trapped in a marriage as hopeless as much of the life around her, she takes advantage of federal government pressure and the advice of a drifter - "Where's the money at…