The Sound of Gravel
Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-two children, raised on a farm in rural Mexico where the family lived without indoor plumbing or electricity. Her community practiced polygamy and preached that God would destroy the wicked and that women could ascend only by entering polygamous marriages and bearing many children.
After Ruth’s father, the founding prophet of the colony, is murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries as a second wife. Ruth and her siblings are shuttled between Mexico and the United States for welfare and work, and Ruth begins to doubt her family’s beliefs while trying to protect her siblings.
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Book details
- Publisher
- Flatiron Books
- Publication date
- January 5, 2016
- Print length
- 352 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781250104441
Biography + Memoir + Christianity
What to Know Before Reading The Sound of Gravel
The description focuses on family bonds and a young girl’s coming-of-age inside a polygamist Mormon doomsday colony. Much of the setup centers on Ruth’s relationships with her many siblings, her mother’s remarriage, and the violent power struggle that follows her father’s murder. The narrative also includes movement between rural Mexico and the United States for welfare and work. The account is presented from a child’s perspective and emphasizes moral and practical conflicts more than supernatural spectacle.
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About the author
Ruth Wariner
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