Reading The Truth of Who You Are offers a way both to view mountain life in the 1920s-1940s and to explore the Smokies.

The novel by Sheila Myers follows Ben Taylor, starting when he is 13 and the oldest child of a family that lives in Taylor Valley, a fictional location in the Smokies. Ben grapples with coming-of age-issues – from being responsible for younger siblings to figuring out how to have a girlfriend to deciding what his future could be. The focus is on Ben, but we also learn of the hardships for families that lived in the mountains, especially for women.

Myers’ research is one of the book’s many strengths. In preparing to write the book, Myers visited the Smokies several times and conducted research on the people who lived in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the time period of the book.

Ben’s aunts are modeled on the Walker Sisters, six sisters who lived in the family cabin in the Little Greenbrier area of the Smokies until the 1960s. When the National Park Service purchased their land in 1940 to become part of what became the Park, the Walker Sisters negotiated being able to continue reside in their cabin as long as they lived.

I’ve hiked to the Walker Sisters Cabin many a time and have written about the Walker Sisters for the Friends of the Smokies. The Walker Sisters Cabin recently was re-opened after extensive renovation as part of the Park’s Forever Places. So, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Myers’ description of Ben helping his aunts with the many tasks involved in their self-reliant lifestyle — from spinning and making their own clothes to growing their own food and herbs to creating medicinal remedies.

Ben and his family dealt with changes in their lives due to commercial development in the Smokies and then the hardships of The Depression. As did many young men of his time, Ben served with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He was stationed in the Smokies and experienced several life-changing events that propel the action of the story.

Ben’s CCC experiences bring to life those now-deserted camps with stone foundations that are reminders of the more than 4,000 young men who lived in CCC camps in the Smokies, who built roads, water systems and trails.

A special element of the book is Myers’ description of the Smokies — the towering old-growth trees, the rushing waterfalls, and the mountain views.

I don’t want to provide any spoilers, so I’ll just say that the book follows more than two decades of Ben’s life, with engaging storytelling about his family, romance, employment, friendships and rivalries, and the impact that world events had on individuals and communities.

Sheila Myers’ storytelling and range of characters will keep you reading to see what happens in Ben’s life and to discover the mystery behind the title.