Alabama Village: Faith, Hope, and Survival in a Southern Town - Paperback

by J. Malcolm Garcia (Author)

From the celebrated writer J. Malcolm Garcia, a narrative nonfiction account of a forgotten Alabama neighborhood through intimate, tender, and gritty profiles of its people as they navigate immense loss and an unassailable determination to overcome their circumstances.

"J. Malcolm Garcia [channels] the empathetic ear of Studs Terkel and the investigative skills of the best literary journalists." --Beth Taylor, author of The Plain Language of Love and Loss

In Alabama Village, an impoverished and often violent neighborhood south of Mobile, the children no longer flinch at the eruption of gunshots. To them, it's just another day. In this community, few things last--the loss of life is relentless, and relief efforts come and go. But John and Dolores Eads, a devout Christian couple who established Light of the Village church, stay. They spread their mission: lead with love, faith, and consistency--and don't condemn or judge.

In interlacing chapters, award-winning journalist J. Malcolm Garcia follows the lives of the Alabama Village community and the kids who grew up at Light of the Village church. Da'Cino Dees saw his first shooting at eight years old and now works at Light of the Village; Aaron "Billy Boy" Amison has been dreaming about dead people since he was little and has been in and out of jail since he was fourteen; Jesenda Brown hopes to escape poverty by starting her own cleaning business; and although Corey "Bigg Man" Davis has accrued exuberant wealth from unknown sources, his personality is marked by his kindhearted generosity.

These striking, raw, and humanizing portraits, among others, showcase the Village and its people, in all its devastation and resilient determination. Alabama Village is an ode to communities and the individual narratives that make them whole.

Author Biography

Literary investigative reporter J. Malcolm Garcia was a social worker and director of a homeless services agency, where he assisted unhoused people in San Francisco for fourteen years before he made the jump into journalism in 1997. His books include The Khaarijee: A Chronicle of Friendship and War in Kabul (2009); What Wars Leave Behind (2014); Without A Country: The Untold Story of America's Deported Veterans (2017); and Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost (2018), as well as three books from Seven Stories Press: The Fruit of All My Grief: Lives in the Shadows of the American Dream (2018); Most Dangerous, Most Unmerciful: Stories from Afghanistan (2022); and Out of the Rain: A Novel (2024). In June 2025, Out of the Rain was longlisted for the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Garcia's work has been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and Best American Essays, and he is a recipient of the Studs Terkel Prize and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for a series on burn pits and how they affected American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Garcia is the nephew of celebrated Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer, winner of the inaugural Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role as Cyrano in the film Cyrano de Bergerac, and the grandson of Rafael Ferrer (1885-1951), an esteemed essayist and lawyer. Garcia has been a regular contributor to Guernica, Salon, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. He lives in the San Diego area.