Water from the Well

Acclaimed by The Boston Book Review as "incantatory ... poetic and magical," Water from the Well is a novel forged in the soul of community. Set in rural Arkansas, it opens in 1919 with a cow-pasture ball game between the whites of Sugars Springs and the coloreds of neighboring Bethel, a game that shakes the town's delicate racial balance. One year later, a cyclone visits destruction on black and white, female and male, villain and victim. Rich with image and sparkling with humor and compassion, Water from the Well is a story of ex-slaves, displaced Yankees, rapists, healers, small-town sheriffs led into temptation, and the rich weave of a century of community history. "Boldly idiosyncratic and folksy ... characters and their stories emerge with the intimacy of personal memory." -- Richard Bausch, The New York Times Book Review; "Entertaining, touching, celebratory, and absolutely pitch-perfect." -- Sandra Scofield, The Philadelphia Inquirer