The Well and the Mine - by Gin Phillips (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1931 Carbon Hill, a small Alabama coal-mining town, nine-year-old Tess Moore watches a woman shove the cover off the family well and toss in a baby without a word. For the Moore family, focused on helping anyone in need during the Great Depression, the apparent murder forces them to face the darker side of their community and question the motivations of family and friends. Backbreaking work keeps most of the townspeople busy from dawn to dusk, and racial tensions abound. For parents, it's a time when a better life for the children means sacrificing health, time, and every penny that can be saved. For a miner, returning home after work is a possibility, not a certainty. However, next to daily thoughts of death, exhausting work, and race are the lingering pleasures of sweet tea, feather beds, and lightning bugs yet to be caught.

Book Synopsis

A novel of warmth and true feeling, The Well and the Mine explores the value of community, charity, family, and hope that we can give each other during a time of hardship. Look out for Phillips's new novel, Fierce Kingdom.

In a small Alabama coal-mining town during the summer of 1931, nine-year-old Tess Moore sits on her back porch and watches a woman toss a baby into her family's well without a word. This shocking act of violence sets in motion a chain of events that forces Tess and her older sister Virgie to look beyond their own door and learn the value of kindness and lending a helping hand. As Tess and Virgie try to solve the mystery of the well, an accident puts their seven-year-old brother's life in danger, forcing the Moore family to come to a new understanding of the power of love and compassion.

Review Quotes

?A quietly bold debut, full of heart.?
?"O, The Oprah Magazine"
?When you close the book, you?ll miss these characters. But "The Well and the Mine" doesn?t just give you characters who?ll stay with you?it gives you a whole world.?
?Fannie Flagg, author of "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Caf?" and "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man"
?Gin Phillips has a remarkable ear for dialogue and a tenderhearted eye for detail; you can hear the pecans and hickory nuts falling from the trees and feel the stillness of a hot summer night. A whisper runs through the novel?the ghosts of places and people and luscious peach pies.?
? "Los Angeles Times"
?A tight-knit miner's family struggles against poverty and racism in Phillips's evocative first novel, set in Depression-era Alabama. Throughout, she moves skillfully between the points of view...Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page.?
?"Publishers Weekl

About the Author

Gin Phillips lives in Birmingham, Alabama. The Well and the Mine is her first novel.