Hillbilly Godfather

Power in the hills moves differently.

It does not announce itself. It waits. It watches. It chooses.

When Ben is asked as a teenager to stand as godfather to his cousin's unborn child, he does not yet understand what that title will demand. Through the years - from reckless youth to college awakenings, from grief in hospital hallways to quiet alliances with lawmen and soldiers - he learns that authority is not taken in a single act. It is accumulated, guarded, and passed on.

Hillbilly Godfather is a generational Southern novella about loyalty, ambition, corruption and succession. It explores how families build power in places overlooked by the world - and how that power survives beyond the men and women who first wield it.

In the end, legacy is not about who shouts the loudest. It belongs to the one who endures.

Featuring ten original illustrations, the book brings key moments of the story vividly to life.

From award-winning author Van Hawkins, Hillbilly Godfather is a powerful tale of family, loyalty and inheritance in the American South.