Deep in the earth, brilliant clusters of quartz crystals lie hidden in fissures and crevices—”pyramid-tipped spires huddled together like a miniature city, cracking the light into a thousand rainbow shards…salted with pinpoints of iron pyrite, glittering like tiny stars.” But such treasures can only be found in fractured, unstable, dangerous earth—places miners simply call “bad ground.” Bad Ground is the story of Jeremy Prine, a seventeen-year-old boy who has been orphaned and who needs to grow up, and fast. His …

In 1943, Levi Mullet escapes his farm, his father, and his Amish heritage. He leaves behind family, scandal and beliefs in order to set out on his own. Defying his pacifist upbringing he enlists and fights in the Second World War. After the war he marries and settles down with his family. But even when living in the Deep South, far from Ohio, he cannot shake the memories of his family. He cannot fully and finally uproot himself. His prodigal …