The pallbearer: a novel (Hardback original)

Lynch, West Virginia, is a husk of a town: houses collapsing, deserted coal mines, the money gone.

The residents who have not abandoned their homes find themselves living in poverty with little-to-no job opportunities, fighting for scraps and survival under the rule of Ferris Gilbert - the patriarch of a local family who governs the town with manipulative cruelty.

When Jason Felts, a dwarf and aspiring social worker who lives above the town funeral home, is assigned to counsel one of the Gilbert brothers incarcerated inside a youth correctional facility for possession charges, Ferris Gilbert sees a rare opportunity.

He seeks out Jason and insists under threat of violence that he smuggle an ominous package into the jail.

Torn between his desire to save the young Gilbert brother from a life of crime and concern for his own safety, Jason must make a life-altering decision.