From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The
Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, an atmospheric, tender tale of love and
loss set in 1969 rural Kentucky. There, a young girl named RubyLyn is
subjected to grueling labor by her God-fearing uncle, and strives to
find a ray of hope in her poverty-stricken town through her own tobacco
patch, a forbidden first love, and her home-made paper fortune
tellers.
Nameless, Kentucky in 1969 is a hardscrabble community where jobs are
few and poverty is a simple fact--just like the hot Appalachian breeze
or the pests that can wipe out a tobacco field in days. RubyLyn Bishop
is luckier than some. Her God-fearing uncle, Gunnar, has a short fuse
and high expectations, but he's given her a good home ever since she was
orphaned at the age of five. But now, a month shy of her sixteenth
birthday, RubyLyn itches for more.
Maybe it's something to do with the paper fortune tellers she's been
making for townsfolk, each covered with beautifully wrought, prophetic
drawings. Or perhaps it's because of Rainey Ford, an African-American
neighbor who works alongside her in the tobacco field whom she has a
kinship with, despite her uncle's worrisome shadow and the town's
disapproval. RubyLyn's predictions are just wishful thinking, not magic
at all, but through them she's imagining life as it could be, away from
the prejudice and hardship that ripple through Nameless.
Atmospheric, poignant, and searingly honest, GodPretty in the Tobacco
Field follows RubyLyn through the course of one blazing summer, as
heartbreaking revelations and life-changing decisions propel her toward
a future her fortune tellers never predicted.
