Alice Anyway

FIRST PLACE GRAND PRIZE WINNER FOR FICTION
2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

#1 Amazon Bestseller

Eighteen-year-old Alice had been taught to stay quiet.
Then a blue-eyed stranger came carrying scripture and words that sounded like love.
He promised to protect her.
Instead, he began to decide who she was allowed to be.

In the Appalachian hills of the 1940s, Alice has spent her life watching, listening, and keeping her thoughts to herself. After grief leaves her alone on the family homestead, a stranger offers the comfort she has never known.

At first, his attention feels like belonging.

Then comfort becomes obedience.

What begins with scripture and tenderness draws Alice into a world where faith is used to control, questions are dangerous, and a woman’s place is decided for her.

The smaller Alice becomes, the more she begins to understand what she is losing.

To claim her life, she will have to risk the only security she has left.

Set among the remote mountain communities of The Glens, Alice Anyway is a deeply immersive Appalachian novel about faith, control, survival, and the quiet courage it takes to choose your own life.

Perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, and The Poisonwood Bible.

Also by Brenda K. Thompson: A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie, Ivaleena, and Child H.