Flame and Slag — Ron Berry

In this classic masterpiece, originally published in 1968, dysfunctional lovers Rees Stevens and Ellen Vaughan must uncover and interpret Ellen's father's journal in order to make sense of their own lives. Faulknerian in its range, hard driven in its narrative telling, singular in style, and fierce in its moral thrust, this richly complex novel uses the fictional sieve of Caib Colliery and the village of Daren to give meaning to the kaleidoscopic history of all of the South Wales valleys over the last century.