In the "Stranger People's" country : A novel

In the mist‑shrouded valleys of the Great Smoky Mountains, a small community lives beside forgotten stone sepulchers that locals call the “Leetle People.” Their burial grounds, rimmed with ancient mystery, stir whispers of vanished pygmy dwellers or lost Cherokee infants, and the very air seems tinged with a melancholy that belongs to no living soul. As the hills keep their silence, the townsfolk—mountain hunters, tough‑spoken wives, and curious children—carry on daily chores while the lingering folklore hangs over every hearth and hunting trail.

When Stephen Yates returns from a night hunt, he finds his wife staring at the same strange graves that have haunted generations of settlers. Their conversation, peppered with dialect and a half‑spoken reverence for a tiny figurine they call “Leetle Mose,” opens a window onto a world where superstition meets ordinary life. Listeners are invited to follow Yates and his family as they grapple with the enigmatic past that quietly shapes their present, discovering how a seemingly simple valley can hold an entire hidden history.