GodPretty in the Tobacco Field-Quality Guarantee

Description

“Beauty and sweetness weave a diaphanous fabric against the stark backdrop of poverty and cruelty.”—Sara Gruen, bestselling author of Water for Elephants

Nameless,Kentucky, in 1969 is a hardscrabble community where jobs are few andpoverty is a simple fact—just like the hot Appalachian breeze or thepests that can wipe out a tobacco field in days. RubyLyn Bishop isluckier than some. Her God-fearing uncle, Gunnar, has a short fuse andhigh expectations, but he’s given her a good home ever since she wasorphaned at the age of five. Yet now, a month shy of her sixteenthbirthday, RubyLyn itches for more.

Maybe it’s something to dowith the paper fortunetellers RubyLyn has been making for townsfolk, each covered with beautifully wrought, prophetic drawings. Or perhapsit’s because of Rainey Ford, an African-American neighbor who worksalongside her in the tobacco field, and with whom she has a kinship, despite her uncle’s worrisome shadow and the town’s disapproval. RubyLyn’s predictions are just wishful thinking, not magic at all, but through them she’s imagining life as it could be, away from the prejudice and hardship that ripple through Nameless.

Atmospheric, poignant, and searingly honest, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field follows RubyLyn through the course of one blazing summer, as heartbreaking revelations and life-changing decisions propel her toward a future her fortunetellers never predicted.