The Cove

The Cove (2012) is a novel by American writer Ron Rash. Set in 1918, it follows the story of a recently orphaned young woman meeting a mute man, falling for him, and ending in tragedy.
Rash’s fifth novel made The New­ York Times Best Seller list. The novel was praised for its atmospheric language and handling of a potentially melodramatic story.

Its themes include evil, aspirations, and self-righteousness.

The novel begins with a preface in which the “stranger” comes to the cove.



Laurel Shelton lives in a heavily wooded area of North Carolina. There’s a sense that the place is haunted. Native Americans never settled in the patch of land, and the first European settlers soon died after their arrival. The Appalachian town is superstitious, and after both of Laurel’s parents die, she is considered to be an evil spirit, possibly a witch, and is ostracized by the community.

The first chapter opens to Laurel performing chores then roaming around the cove. She enjoys the day and likes listening to the birds. One day, she overhears a man in the woods playing a flute. In stealth, she observes him. She returns home.

Her brother, Hank Shelton, has returned from WWI. He is missing a hand, but Laurel is thankful that he’s alive; not every man around the cove has been so lucky. One of her chores is to take care of him, doing the things he can’t easily accomplish himself, such as washing a t-shirt. The siblings’ only extra help is an 81-year-old man named Slidell, who wants to be useful to somebody in his old age.



Jubel Parton, a young gossip, claims to have had sex with Laurel. This adds to her reputation around town that she’s not only a witch, but also promiscuous.

Four days pass. During that time, each day Laurel has overheard the mysterious man playing some morose notes on the flute. On the fourth day, she notices he isn’t playing. Looking closer, she sees that he’s been gravely injured by a horde of wasps.

Laurel takes the man back to her place for healing. His name is Walter, which she learns after finding a piece of paper that says his name and diagnoses him as mute. Walter has recently left some sort of camp, and Laurel doesn’t yet know that he’s on the run from the law.



Laurel learns that Walter is trying to catch a train to New York. Once he’s recovered from the bee stings, Laurel says the family will help him catch the train if he helps them with some chores. He does, and the family plans on aiding him. Laurel catches a glimpse of a medal that Walter tries to hide. She picks it up from a crag and wonders where it came from.

Part two opens to a military recruiter, Sgt. Chauncey Feith, giving a toast to Boyce Clayton at the local tavern, Turkey Trot. Boyce’s nephew, Paul, is in the hospital due to his war wounds. Grudgingly, Boyce accepts the toast. Boyce is not so subtle with his dislike toward Paul. Unlike many of the men in the region, Chauncey isn’t a soldier because he claims to be busy recruiting for the war effort. He’s a charlatan who makes a big show of being a patriot. One of his favorite pastimes is going to the local library to ban any and all books written in German.

At the cove, Laurel entreats Walter to stay with her. He refuses and goes to the train station. He’s about to hop on the train when he sees his face on a wanted poster. He tries sneaking onto the train but doesn’t manage it. Foiled from escaping the area, Walter grudgingly returns to the cove.



Two months later, Walter and Laurel are happily dating. But Laurel starts to think that Walter really can speak. One day, she takes the medal he tried to bury to a professor who can read German. The professor says that “Vaterland” imprinted on the medal means “fatherland.” The Vaterland was a ship in New York City that was abandoned when Germany declared war in Europe. The Germans on board were free to roam around the US, but when the states entered WWI in 1917, all of the passengers were taken to a containment camp in North Carolina.

With this information, Laurel confronts Walter. He admits that he really is a German stranded in America. Jurgin Walter Koch is his birth name. Despite this reveal, the two still wish to be together. In fact, after the war, they’d like to travel to New York City and marry.

Meanwhile, Chauncey is stirring up anti-German sentiments around the cove. Ever the monomaniac, Chauncey believes great statues, even states, will be named after him for his role in WWI. Paul Clayton is to be released from the hospital, and Chauncey plans to use this occasion to celebrate and increase his profile around the community. He’s briefly disappointed when the governor of North Carolina declines an invitation to the party.



On the way to celebrate Paul Clayton’s recovery, the Clayton family sees a wanted poster of a man they immediately know to be Walter. They inform Chauncey. Chauncey sees this as a chance to build his reputation as one who brings Germans to justice and encourages nearly a dozen men from around town to take up arms and march to the Cove.

Laurel and Walter see the mob coming. Laurel tells Walter to run, wait for three days, and if she doesn’t make it, to continue north without her. While walking home through a creek, Chauncey spots Laurel and recklessly shoots at the moving object. He kills her.

Before this, the mob had been at the house and tied up Hank to the porch. Chauncey decides to kill Hank; were Hank to live, he would want revenge for his sister’s death. All of the men are shocked by Chauncey’s actions and stop searching for Walter. Chauncey doesn’t see anything wrong with what he’s done, a sentiment echoed by Jubel Parton.



After three days, Walter returns to the cove to discover that Laurel and Hank have both been buried. WWI has ended, and when Walter meets up with Sidell, he learns about the murders, and that Chauncey has fled town. Mournful but with no other choice, Walter continues his migration to New York.