![]() ![]() ![]() Annie Coles to ask about a job and a place to live, she speaks first with the Coles’s black maid, Oretta (Retta) Bootles, and their three lives converge. When she sees a dark way out, she takes it and doesn’t look back. Married at thirteen, Gertrude (Gert) Pardee has an abusive alcoholic husband, four growing daughters, and no money to properly feed or clothe them. The boll weevil infestation has devastated local cotton production, and the region hasn’t recovered. In 1924, five years before the Great Depression’s official start, hard times have already hit. Her own great-grandmother and grandmother came from this same place, enduring grinding poverty while raising their families as best they could, and her deep familiarity with the land and people seeps into the pages. Spera’s debut novel brims with grim authenticity as she recounts the unexpected bond between three women in the small town of Branchville, South Carolina. The Sweetest Fruits by Monique Truong, fiction abo.Review of Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Eliz.Kyung-Sook Shin's The Court Dancer, set in 19th-ce.Diversity in the Ancient World, a guest post by Ze.Bits and pieces of historical fiction news: critic.Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera, 1920s-set fi. ![]() Thoughts on Philippa Gregory's new saga of 17th-ce. ![]()
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