Fancy Gap

by Zak Jones

A powerful, unforgettable three estranged generations in Appalachia struggle with loss, poverty, and their individual demons, until an explosive climax brings them together in a most unexpected way.

In the hills and isolated mountain enclaves of southern Appalachia, Nana Grace has left her own family behind to become the “Shepherd” of a disaffected flock of worshippers that she keeps in thrall through both charismatic preaching and the dispensing of stolen drugs.

Her daughter struggles with breast cancer, the painful effects of its treatment, and the expectation to perform unceasing gratitude toward the evangelical community that reluctantly supports her out of a transactional sense of duty.

Her eldest son, Dalton, has been discharged from the army under conditions "Other than Honorable"; accused of breaching the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He drifts hesitantly home, pulled by guilt and love for his younger brother. Messy (christened Messiah at Grace’s insistence) is awkward in a world that attacks difference. Guided by faith, tortured by abandonment, Messy eventually develops a warped moral code shaped by alienation and anger.

Fancy Gap is an unflinching look at the desperation that throws kerosene on the flames of opioid use, poverty, illness, and apocalyptic Christianity. Profound and captivating, violent and lyrical, it introduces Zak Jones as a compelling and original new voice in Canadian literature.

Genres: Fiction, Canada

336 pages, Hardcover

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Zak Jones is the author of Fancy Gap (Hamish Hamilton, 2026). He is a writer and literary scholar. A dual Canadian-American citizen, he grew up between rural North Carolina and Toronto. His short story, “So Much More to Say,” won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s 2023 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and his story, “Love Handles,” won the 2023 Norma Epstein National Award. Jones is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto studying veterans’ narratives in American Literature, writing his second novel, and developing an archival documentary project, Riding Six White Horses.

Reviews

[Juliann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern gothic meets cult horror meets the dry dust of a gravel road. This is a *novel* and a damn fine one. The prose is alive with sound, smell, and texture, bearing echoes of Faulkner and O’Connor. The story makes you think on the micro and the macro level. Wise and intelligent.

Thanks to Hamish Hamilton for the ARC.

[Zak Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the hell?

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like True Detective S1 (poor backwaters of the American south) meets a Ruth Ozeki novel.

[John Waites · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fancy Gap by Zak Jones is not just a debut novel — it’s an autopsy of America. Of its God. Of its promises. Of the quiet, grinding cruelty baked into the land.

Set in an Appalachian town drowning in poverty, pills, and prayer, this book follows three generations of the Fuquay family — and every single one of them is fighting to survive something inherited.

Dalton, freshly discharged from the Army under a cloud of shame, drifts from job to job, carrying guilt like a second skin. Jane, his mother, battles cancer with wine and prescription bottles, clinging to a church that has long since betrayed her. Messy — sweet, abandoned, aching Messy — moves through foster homes and Bible camps just wanting someone to choose him. And then there’s Grace, the grandmother, a born-again preacher in the mountains, delivering fire-and-brimstone sermons while dispensing her own version of salvation.

Addiction. Religious extremism. White supremacy. The coal industry. The military machine. Generational neglect.

Jones doesn’t flinch from any of it.

This isn’t poverty porn. It isn’t caricature. It’s intimate. It’s furious. It’s painfully human.

On every page, Jones forces us to look at the parts of America we’d rather ignore — the grey monotony, the spiritual hunger, the systems that promise salvation but deliver abandonment.

And somehow, through all that darkness, he still writes with compassion.

A blistering, unflinching debut about faith, family, and the long shadow of inherited pain. I won’t stop thinking about it.

[Isabelle Bessel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and unexpected

[Maxime Brunet · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 4.5 - change your ratings goodreads.

A great debut novel. Every chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, showing you how many sides there can be to one story. As the plot progressed, I found it hard to put this book down. I just wanted to know what happened to everyone! The writing is strong.

It is a dark and difficult story, but it explores the times we live in.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Akeel Ghann · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

It’s starts pretty slow and doesn’t pick up much until part 2 but it’s a beautifully written book with an engaging story. I wish some of the characters and stories had more detail for quite a long book, it just felt like there was so much fluff. It is worth reading for part 3 alone though!

[Laurie Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. I think I wanted to like it more.
I did listen to it on audiobook, and I think perhaps I would have liked it more as just a print book? The narration is well one, but you know it is very "hillbilly" and I would admit I tend to have an internal bias of dislike.
Everyone in this book is sad and lonely and most of them are terrible.

There are a lot of drugs, and a grandma running her own "church" and boys that nobody cares about.
It was all just depressing and lonely and I find it drug along a little bit.