The Watersmith by Yance Wyatt

The Watersmith follows hard-drinking handyman Jack Calloway, who discovers an old moonshine still behind the Smoky Mountain cabin he plans to flip. His teenage son dares him to repair it. Jack accepts, until his wife, Jolene, tries to sabotage the first batch and is horribly burned in the process. Wracked with guilt, Jack sends their son away and moves Jolene into the cabin to recover while he tries to sober up.

Doctors diagnose Jolene with a rare post-traumatic dementia that responds only to scent, smell being the strongest trigger of memory. Desperate to help, Jack begins distilling essential oils from her favorite flowers, searching for the one that might bring her back. When a fleeting moment of clarity during a visit from their son slips away, Jack grows frantic, willing to distill anything in his grasp to reach her.

A haunting yet tender tale of love, regret, and the volatile bonds between parents and children, The Watersmith is a story of oil and water, memory and mercy, and how far one man will go to bring his family home.

Yance Wyatt was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied fiction at the University of Cambridge and the University of Southern California, where he now teaches writing. A two-time finalist for the Lit/South Award, his stories have appeared in dozens of nationally circulated literary journals and received several Pushcart Prize nominations.