Dimensions
133 x 186 x 33mm
Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother. Lily, just four at the time, not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now, at fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has just one friend, Rosaleen, a black servant of uncertain age, whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart.
South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act - though not purely for selfless reasons.
Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.
In this stunning, haunting debut, Sue Monk Kidd evokes dangerous times far removed from the 1960s of pop music and miniskirts, and displays the vivid imagination and creative gifts of a truly talented writer.
