“For many people, ‘Allegiance’ is a noun, but in Gurney Norman’s hands, it is a verb—an active verb, an earthshaking process that rearranges the expectations of a homeplace, raises the windows of personal and epic history, and throws open doors of memory and imagination. Allegiance is a remarkable, eye-opening set of stories that affirm and defy time and place. It’s larger than one lifetime, resonating across generations, and inviting readers to reconsider their own allegiances.”—Sandra L. Ballard, Editor, Appalachian Journal
“We seldom find a book that we have hoped for like this one. These bright and humorous, sometimes sad yet always telling stories are both lyrical and dramatic; (Norman’s) sharpness of detail and flexibility of styles and tones remains central in his rich Appalachian world…. A blessing by a veteran author."—Larry Smith, New York Journal of Books
“The highest achievement of Allegiance may be its reframing of the experience of loss.... It’s a difficult task, pulled off with savvy authorial choice and seamless prose.... Composed with a wise hand for structural shape, the vignettes transcend timelines, vacillate between first and third person, travel from childhood to adulthood and back.... The result is an exhilarating mirroring of consciousness itself, a design that is more stunning natural element than manufactured arc.”—KAYLA WHITAKER, author of The Animators