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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Racial violence from townspeople opposed to the feeding of Black sharecroppers; some deaths
Language
Barely any
Mild language; Depression-era period register
Sexual Content
Barely any
No explicit content; a quiet romantic connection
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
A dying man choosing to use his remaining time for justice, a mother learning to let someone in, the particular courage of opposing your town's prejudice in 1930s Texas
What this book is about
Ella Barron runs a boarding house in a small Texas town during the Great Depression, raising her young autistic son Solly and struggling to make the rent. David Rainwater arrives as a boarder — dying of cancer, with weeks or months left. His time in Ella's house is quiet and deliberate: he organizes a food cooperative to feed Black sharecroppers being denied Depression relief, and he slowly becomes part of Solly's world. Sandra Brown's historical novel is her quietest and most moral work.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
racial injustice and violence in a historical setting
a character dying of terminal illness
period-accurate depictions of the Depression and Jim Crow
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