The classic novel of a Georgia family undone by the Great Depression: “[A] story of force and beauty” (New York Post). Even before the Great Depression struck, Jeeter Lester and his family were desperately poor sharecroppers. But when hard times begin to affect the families that once helped support them, the Lesters slip completely into the abyss. Rather than hold on to each other for support, Jeeter, his wife Ada, and...

The Georgia boy is twelve years old, and the household in which he is brought up includes his father, Morris Stroup, a somewhat strong-minded and itinerant character, and his mother, Martha Stroup, trying to raise her young son and cope with her husband, some aggravating goats, game cocks, and a lazy colored yard boy named Handsome Brown, who has a hand in practically everything. Mrs. Stroup raises her family with the grace of any woman who has been...

Seventeen short stories which have appeared in previous volumes or magazines.