Ren Thibodeaux, a senior at a women’s college in southwest Virginia, runs. When she notices Navin Doss—twice her age, with a quiet, weatherworn demeanor—hunched over a bottle of Budweiser at her favorite dive bar, Ren believes she’s found a reason to stop running. Coaxing her way into his life, Ren discovers Navin’s moonshining isn’t his only secret and the tragedies of his past are more complicated, and more present, than he cares to admit.

Part coming-of-age, part romance, part grit-lit, and part campus novel, “Like Lightning” coheres around Ren’s singular narrative voice, both sardonic and sincere.