First published 2016
In these Mississippi Delta communities, people navigate life's complications with whatever resources they can find. An elderly woman takes particular joy in needling her daughter's husband at every opportunity. A woman serving drinks in a local bar decides that church membership might reorganize her troubled existence. A young college man becomes involved with a woman significantly older than himself. A country and western performer faces a future confined to a wheelchair. These characters live paycheck to paycheck in a region where racial tensions simmer beneath daily interactions. They make mistakes, struggle with relationships, and search for meaning in circumstances that often baffle them. The bonds they form with family and neighbors become their source of understanding, even when happiness remains elusive. Yarbrough captures their voices and struggles across eleven interconnected stories that reveal how ordinary people find wisdom through connection.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, ordinary-people
Setting: Mississippi Delta
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
167 pages · Paperback · University of South Carolina Press