First published 1999
Even Grade works odd jobs around a small Mississippi town in the late 1950s. At twenty-eight, he has spent his entire life without family, raised as an orphan with no roots to claim. Fifteen-year-old Valuable Korner knows her mother only as the local prostitute. Her father remains a mystery. When Joody Two Sun arrives and pitches camp by the river outside town, she draws Even into her bed and into her world of visions. Through Joody, Even's life becomes entangled with Valuable's. Both carry the same hunger for connection that has shaped their lonely years. Even wants the stability he never knew as a child. Valuable craves escape from her mother's reputation and the shame that follows her through town. Their parallel quests for belonging will push them toward choices that reshape their understanding of what family means.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, parallel-narratives
Setting: Mississippi
Period: 1950s
445 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion