Miraculous healing subject of Jason Mott's novel 'The Wonder of All Things'

Jason Mott by Michael Becker

"N.C. Bookwatch" will be re-running host D.G. Martin's interview with bestselling N.C. novelist  Jason Mott ("The Returned") at 5 p.m. on Thursday on UNC-TV.

"The Returned" was the inspiration for the popular ABC series, "Resurrection," about the dead returning to life. This week, Mott's second novel, "The Wonder of All Things," will hit bookstores.
If you're hoping for more magic, you're in luck.

"On an ordinary day at an air show like that in any small town across the country," reads the jacket copy, "a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators. After the dust clears, a 13-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds disappear."

The Washington Post has called it "compulsively readable" and Publishers Weekly says, "Exceptional.... Riveting."

Mott grew up in and still lives in Bolton, N.C., a town of three-square miles in Columbus County, once the home of the Waccamaw Lumber Company. Population: 700 and holding.

Mott, who is 36, was raised Southern Baptist, and he told a USA Today reporter that the idea of miraculous healing has always interested him.

"In the South there's always a bit of magic, through the stories you hear. Everything here has a back story to it. And in the South there's the phenomenon of churches where healing goes on."

Mott studied fiction and poetry at UNC Wilmington, earning BA and MFA degrees. He's published short stories and two books of poetry, one of which, "This Thing Between Us We Call Love," is from Main Street Rag of Charlotte.

Upcoming Jason Mott Readings and Book Signings

• 7 p.m. Sept. 30: Barnes & Noble, Wilmington, N.C.
• 7:30 p.m., Oct. 1: Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh, N.C.
• 2 p.m., Oct. 9: Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro, N.C.
• 7 p.m., Oct. 28: The Hanesbrand Auditorium, Winston-Salem, N.C.