A deaf-mute who has lost his only friend to a hospital for the insane becomes the recipient of the confidences of several other town residents. "Carson McCullers' prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner...

"The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into the experiences of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia"-- Provided by publisher....

Captoe's first novel describes the abnormal maturing of a loveless thirteen-year-old boy who goes to live with his father in a run-down Louisiana mansion peopled with eccentric characters.

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of "between a rock and a hard place." She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two men: her husband, easing out the back door; and her best friend, laying siege to her heart in her front yard. She has a job that holds her in the city, and she's addicted to a little girl stuck deep in the country. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her and raised...

Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking,...

The Civil War as seen by generals on both sides of the conflict. They are the Confederacy's Lee and Jackson, and the Union's Chamberlain and Hancock. The novel follows them from the start of the war to just before the Battle of Gettysburg. A prequel to The Killer Angels, a 1974 novel by the author's late father.

Set on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the story of three endearing misfits-an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies-who one day take up residence in a tree house. As they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom. But most of all it teaches us about the sacredness of love, "that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of...

"Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch -- "Scout"--Returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and...

Jem and his sister, Scout, are forced out of the cocoon of a secure and happy childhood. When they spread their wings they find their world is not as they supposed, and under the tranquil surface there is much that is ugly. In the space of two and a half years they have to deal with prejudice, injustice, racism and the killing of an innocent man. Then there is the murder-- This version of Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird uses a unique graphic format...

" " William Styron's stunning debut: a classic portrait of one Southern family's tragic spiral into destruction " First published to wide critical acclaim in 1951, Lie Down in Darkness centers on the Loftis family--Milton and Helen and their daughters, Peyton and Maudie. The story, told through a series of flashbacks on the day of Peyton's funeral, is a powerful depiction of a family doomed by its failure to forget and its inability to love. " Written...