What is beautiful in the South is reintroduced to the reader of Bradley Sides’ The Volcano Keeper. This novella reminds us of all the things still worth loving in this region. The slowness. The aliveness. The quiet that lets meaning get loud. What isn’t said in these pages could easily double the size of this work. But the inconspicuousness in Sides’ tale of the life of Charlie Melvin is what makes this story even more magical than a volcano growing in an Alabama pasture.
Two very familiar themes in Southern literature are apparent throughout this work: grief and nostalgia, which tinge nearly every interaction. However, the bitterness of these two emotions are dosed with incredible sweetness. The family relationships in The Volcano Keeper are the stuff of dreams. Conversations between characters are often sparse, and if removed from context, they might seem meaningless. But it is those seemingly trite phrases which depict the tenderness, respect, and appreciation all people crave and these characters have for each other. Descriptions, too, are lovingly rendered. Sides is clearly a devotee of nature and thoughtfully crafted objects as much as he is a paramour of words. The smallest image is lovingly depicted: “Charlie’s sitting cross-legged on a patch of burnt grass, scratching a circle into the resistant earth with a hollow oak twig. He imagines the insignificant dent he makes as a rain-filled water trough one summer evening for the family of ants that trudge along near his hand.” Sides’ prose reveals meaningful layers of the wonder and magic a child can feel in nature.
Charlie loses his grandfather within the first few pages of the novella. When his grandfather’s prediction that a volcano will rise in his absence comes to pass, it would seem the book has found its complete metaphor. But the volcano turns out to be about more than just his grandfather’s death. As more people in the community die, the volcano grows, and death creates more loss: the rumbling, rocky mound begins to overtake more and more of the family pasture of hay and their main source of income. Charlie was charged by his grandfather to keep this volcano, and he takes it as his vocation. In doing so, he caretakes everyone’s grief.
Beyond clear-eyed descriptions of the world Charlie inhabits, the deeper beauty of this story is the way grief and life spin together like a thaumatrope (a spin art toy) to create a picture of love. As Charlie continues in his life he falls in love, gets married, gets a puppy, all while losing nearly everyone he loves, as well as the farm. Even a quick scene with a box full of kittens depicts the spinning of these two forces:
“Charlie reaches in and pets them. First the kittens, stroking them with the underside of his index finger, and then the mysterious mama, who rolls proudly over on her back and purrs, her toes stretching toward the sky.
He pets them until Debbie calls him in for dinner.
After they clear their plates, Charlie asks her to follow him. To see what he’s found.
When he pulls back the lid, they are gone. Off to their next makeshift home.
Not even any keepsake tufts of fur.”
The bereavement in a community made tangible by the volcano threatens to consume the place where the love grew, even to the point of destruction. At risk as well is the heritage lovingly cultivated by the family; traditions and relationships are overtaken by the growing mound. The burden of caretaking this grief, while noble and necessary, becomes a burden so great that it threatens to break Charlie down, both mentally and physically. The commentary on rural Alabama life in this region quakes just beneath the surface throughout the book.
This book is filled with the Southern magic worth preserving. It encourages us to notice the June bugs and minnows, to pay close attention to your aunt’s recipe for biscuits, and to sit next to who you love on a porch even without a word exchanged. The ending will rock you harder than your favorite Ted Lasso episode. It never felt better to have someone say “Told you.”
FICTION
The Volcano Keeper
By Bradley Sides
Regal House Publishing
Published October 20, 2026
