Book description
The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a
Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games
behind the Dodgers with two weeks to go, and the season looked
hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist high to my father, almost
over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper
whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good
crop."
Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his
own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a seven year old farm
boy named Luke Chandler, who lives in the cotton fields with his
parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted.
The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the
cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from
the Ozarks to help harvest it.
For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the
fatigue, and sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and
hears things no seven year old could possibly be prepared for, and
finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will
change the lives of the Chandlers forever. A Painted House is a
moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience.
John Grisham is the author of twenty-two novels, one work of
non-fiction, a collection of short stories, and a novel for young
readers. He is on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project in
New York and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School
of Law. He lives in Virgina and Mississippi.
His website is www. johngrisham. co. uk
