Local Author Explores Faith, Secrets & Small-Town Kentucky in Debut Novel
Photographer / Megan Jordan
Book Cover Photographer / Richard Ljoenes Design, LLC
Nestled in the hills of central Kentucky, the small town of Bardstown contains multitudes. Known as the “Bourbon Capital of the World,” it’s also one of the first places Catholicism began to flourish in the early 1800s in the United States. While those two distinctions may seem at odds, they blend together beautifully as the setting for “The Great Meadows.”
Written by Center Grove resident and Indianapolis Catholic Archdiocese Chancellor Christopher Walsh, the book explores the mysteries hidden within the hills themselves. A former singer-songwriter and teacher, Walsh began his journey to the printing press during the 2020 pandemic when, like many others, he had plenty of downtime.
“My wife and I moved to Indianapolis in October 2020,” Walsh says. “I had this idea for a long time. I just decided to start and see how the story develops and where this takes me. I had no experience with it at all. I’ve never written anything like a novel. My writing had always been either academic or songwriting or poetry up to that point.”
To hone his craft, Walsh spent months doing homework — reading books on creative writing, watching hours of YouTube tutorials and listening to podcasts from best-selling authors. It was during this time that he began to develop his own style and approach to the creative process.
He found inspiration in authors like Cormac McCarthy, whom he calls “one of the most brilliant writers we’ve had.” McCarthy is the author of the critically acclaimed “All the Pretty Horses” and “No Country for Old Men.”
Walsh would spend hours at the keyboard.
“It really does require a bit of an obsessive approach,” Walsh says. “I would get home from work and usually write for about two or three hours until about 9 p.m. every night, and then on the weekends. Generally speaking, I’d spend at least three to four hours on the weekends writing as well. The words began to pile up — 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 words — suddenly, you’re in the middle of a story and you just have to keep hammering away at it.”
The plot of “The Great Meadows” centers around a chance encounter along a rural Kentucky highway, where “aimless rambler” Levi meets Moussa, who is on his way to a nearby monastery. Levi gives Moussa a ride.
“Moussa is on a spiritual pilgrimage and wants to figure out what God wants him to do with his life, and so these two men meeting is the central event in the story,” Walsh says.
Without giving away too many spoilers, Walsh says Moussa ends up dead three days after Levi drops him at the monastery.
“Levi, the protagonist, ends up taking on the investigation of what happened to Moussa,” he says. “It’s a mystery that unfolds, and the confrontation that Levi has with a powerful family is not only about what happened to Moussa, but also about resolving the conflict of his own troubled past.”
Backdrop: Bardstown
The small central Kentucky town’s Catholic roots helped shape the story. According to Wikipedia, “the Diocese of Bardstown was established in 1808, alongside dioceses in several major U.S. cities — Boston, New York, and Philadelphia — which comprised the former territory of the Diocese of Baltimore west of the Appalachian Mountains.”
The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist (Cistercian) monastery outside Bardstown, plays a central role in the plot.
Walsh also wove Bardstown’s “Bourbon Capital” identity into the narrative.
“Kentucky is a state that is largely dry,” he says. “The people are very kind, but I would say that area also has a thread of rebellion woven through it, as there was plenty of bootlegging throughout the history of central Kentucky.”
Like many great fiction writers, his characters are rooted in his childhood and people he has known through the years.
Walsh strived to create a story where Bardstown becomes more than a location — the town itself becomes a character central to the plot.
“I liken it to John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, where Savannah (Georgia) is such a central character in the story,” he says.
He has already begun thinking about a sequel.
“I’m not going to give too much away,” he jokes. “But it does set up just perfectly for what happens next.”
Walsh hosted a book release party at the end of September, and “The Great Meadows” is available on Amazon as an e-book, hardback, and paperback. He hopes to host at least one book signing down the road as he works on the sequel with his marketing manager and biggest fan — his wife, Sallie.
“I am so thankful for her support in giving me time to write — it’s a huge commitment and sacrifice,” he says.
He also hopes to hear “The Great Meadows” come to life as an audiobook one day.
Copies can be purchased at amazon.com by search “The Great Meadows Christopher Walsh.”
