"This is not an important book," Rick Bragg writes in the opening paragraphs of "All Over but the Shoutin.' "

Bragg

"It is only the story of a strong woman, a tortured man and three sons who lived hemmed in by thin cotton and ragged history in northeastern Alabama, in a time when blacks and whites found reason to hate each other and a whole lot of people could not stand themselves."

Despite Bragg's humble beginnings, both in his book and in life, his story is an important one. It is a story told with warm humor and stark honesty, a tale of a young man who penned his way to the top, one word at a time.

In October, he will join other celebrated authors at the West Virginia Book Festival. This month, he becomes the first selection of the Gazette-Mail's new Sunday Book Club.

"All Over but the Shoutin,' " published in 1997, follows Bragg's distinguished career as he moved from the dusty back roads of Alabama to the newsroom of The New York Times. A Pulitzer Prize winner, he has covered everything from the bloody political turmoil in Haiti to the Oklahoma City bombing.

Bragg's story strikes a familiar note here in West Virginia. He writes with striking clarity about the implications of growing up poor in the rural foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, an area Bragg refers to as "the most beautiful place on earth." He writes of the comfort that's often found with family and heritage.

But this memoir is not without its share of unpleasant memories. Bragg attributes much of his ambition to a desire to correct the wrongs of his childhood. The central theme of Bragg's book -- whether he is describing a rural Alabama church destroyed by a deadly tornado, his Nieman Fellowship at Harvard or the shocking case of Susan Smith -- is his drive to succeed, something he feels will validate the many sacrifices of his mother.

It could be said that Bragg's mother is the main character in his story. "All Over but the Shoutin' " reveals a portrait of a strong, determined woman whose focus never strayed from her family.

Bragg's hard work won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1996, an award he accepted with his mother at his side. In a chapter aptly titled "Getting Even With Life," he describes his mother's reaction as he accepted his award:

"I had seen my mother cry from pain and grief and misery, when I was a child. I had never seen her cry from happiness until they called out my name and I walked up to get that prize, then handed it to her. She did not sob, she would never do that, but there were tears there."

As part of the Gazette-Mail's feature on our first Book Club selection, I talked with Rick Bragg by phone recently from his home in New Orleans. We spoke on a variety of topics, ranging from some of his favorite authors (who included Charles Dickens and James Lee Burke) to his thoughts as a veteran journalist on the anniversary of Sept. 11. He is flattered, he told me, to be labeled a "Southern writer," because the list includes such good company.

For more of our conversation, click here. Later this month, the Web site will feature an e-mail exchange discussing Bragg's book. We also will publish comments from the site in the Sunday Gazette-Mail in October.

To contact staff writer Regina Davis, use e-mail or call 348-7936.