For 28-year-old Ella May wiggins life is tough. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with the only work she can find, the night shift at American Mill No 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. When union leaflets begin circulating, Ella May has a tast of hope, a yearning for the better life the organizers promise... Paying tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers, 'The Last Ballad' is lyrical, heartbreaking and haunting, and the novel which confirms Wiley Cash's place among America's finest writers.