First published 2002
Hezekiah Sheehand stands at sixteen in the Mississippi countryside of the 1960s. The rural landscape shapes his days as he moves through a world marked by the social currents of the era. Hezekiah emerges as a character whose experiences reflect the complexities of growing up in this particular time and place. The novel follows his journey through the challenges that define his adolescence in a setting where tradition and change collide. Melinda Haynes crafts Hezekiah's story with the same attention to character and place that distinguished her previous work, which found success through reader recommendations and selection for Oprah's Book Club. The teenage protagonist's voice carries the weight of his circumstances as he encounters the realities of his Mississippi community during this transformative decade in American history.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, adolescence, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, small-town
Setting: Mississippi
Period: 1960s
464 pages · Paperback · Harper and Collins