Mother of Pearl (Oprah's Book Club)

Fans of Cold Sassy Tree, Kaye Gibbons, and Fried Green Tomatoes will delight in this lyrical first novel set in a small Mississippi town in the late 1950s. Populated by wonderfully rich and original characters, and weaving themes of identity and the true meaning of family, the story revolves around twenty-eight-year old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, a fifteen-year old white girl who is the daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Each is seeking family, love, and commitment. Their paths cross through Joody Two Sun, a seer, who becomes Even Grade's lover. Enhanced by Melinda Haynes' exquisite prose, which captures the irony and beauty of life in the deep South, Mother of Pearl heralds the arrival of a powerful new voice in American fiction.