First published 2019
Pearl lives in the front seat of a 1994 Mercury parked next to a Florida trailer park. Her mother sleeps in the back seat. When Pearl was just weeks old, her mother fled her comfortable life after giving birth in secret at seventeen. Now they survive among war veterans, gun-dealing reverends, fugitives, and heroin dealers in the poorest corners of white America. Pearl's mother fills their cramped car with love songs, sugar cubes, and tender words that try to drown out the nightly gunfire surrounding them. The trailer park residents become their makeshift family. When Pearl turns twelve, everything changes. Eli arrives from Texas, dealing weapons and dealing trouble. Pearl's mother falls for this dangerous man, and drugs and guns invade their small world. Pearl's childhood splits in two as violence and addiction twist their lives apart.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intimate
Setting: Florida, Texas, United States
Period: 20th-century
416 pages · Paperback · Lumen
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, violence