"A gut-wrenching tale of a coal-mining community's bitter-most failings and one Polish family's glorious rising. 40 Patchtown is evocative, haunting, told with page-turning momentum, and reveals an insider's understanding of the societal complexities that keep miners returning to the earth's dark underbelly. Damian Dressick, a talented and thoughtful writer, is the freshest voice to come out of Appalachia since Wiley Cash arrived on the literary scene." - Karen Spears Zacharias, author of Mother of Rain