by John Grisham
First published 2000
Seven-year-old Luke Chandler toils in the cotton fields of his family's Arkansas farm, picking alongside Mexican laborers and mountain folk. But as the harvest drags on, Luke bears witness to a forbidden romance, a shocking murder, and the simmering racial tensions threatening to boil over. Confronted with adult realities he can scarcely comprehend, Luke is forced to grow up faster than any child should, his innocence giving way to the burdens of secrecy and a stark reckoning with the complexities of the adult world.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, forced-proximity
Setting: Arkansas
Period: 20th-Century
388 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: racism