Wayne Derek Quarles wins no sainthood awards. A resident of bustling, polyglot Northern Virginia, Quarles is self-centered, egotistical, and cantankerous - an equal opportunity bigot. Within the span of a week, his malevolence causes him to lose everything that has ever been important. But his life seemingly turns even more wretched when, on a visit to tiny Union, West Virginia, he becomes an accidental long-term visitor. Through family lore, Quarles finds that his troubles, as well as his recovery process, mirror those of his ancestor, Confederate veteran Andrew Jackson McGranahan, whose likeness was memorialized in a statue in a cow pasture at the end of Main Street. Union, WV is a novel of loss, healing, and redemption in contemporary Appalachia.