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Written by Melinda Haynes - Performed by Nana Visitor - Abridged Fiction - COMPACT DISCS

Publisher, Dove Audio (September 1999)

The printed edition of this title is an Oprah's Book Club Selection!

Publishers Weekly says:
In prose both rugged and beautiful, Haynes plumbs the secrets of the South in her stunning debut novel. Set in Petal, Miss., across the Leaf River from Hattiesburg, the narrative opens in the summer of 1956, shortly after Even Grade, a 27-year-old black man, has met Joody Two Sun, a seer who's known as a witch, and not long after Valuable Korner, the 14-year-old daughter of the town's one loose woman, gets her Blessing of Blood, as Joody Two Sun calls it. Even, so named from the note his mother left when she abandoned him at a Memphis orphanage, is a decent man, kindheartedly building a family of friends; while Valuable, the daughter of a dying Southern line, an orphan of sorts herself, is deeply in need of family. Valuable and Jackson McLain, the boy down the street, fall in love, and Haynes captures that phenomenon delicately and persuasively. In a heartbeat Valuable is pregnant, and as Jackson is forced to move away, Valuable turns to Joody and Even for support as she carries the baby she comes to think of as Pearl. Despite Even's help, Valuable, whose family hides secrets far darker than this pregnancy, seems doomed to pay for the sins of the past. Indeed, Haynes' capacious novel is very much about the justice wrought by destiny, but it is also about finding family, people who nurture, forgive and care for each other; in the novels resolution, those most deserving of love are brought together. Haynes is fearless in portraying her character's flaws, their pettiness and racism, their erring thoughts, but she's also merciful, letting them grow and change during the course of the narrative. While perhaps too many of the characters take the stage, each with tragic accounts of their lives, Haynes nevertheless triumphs with a rare and memorable ensemble. This wise, luminous novel demonstrates her great gifts for language, courageous storytelling and compassion.

The New York Times Book Review says:
Welcome to Petal, Miss., a real place on the map, but in Melinda Haynes' first novel, Mother of Pearl, a fictional one as entangling as kudzu. In language as profuse and vigorous as that Southern vine, Haynes tells the stories, among others, of Valuable Korner, a fatherless girl named after a real estate sign; Even Grade, an orphan, now grown, who was named for a road; and Joleb Green, whose name comes from a father he does not yet know.

The Baltimore Sun says:
Haynes' voice is piquant and poetic, carving out its own kind of perfection. Spilling over with color, beauty, violence, wisdom and simply astonishing writing, Mother of Pearl is a gift to readers everywhere.

Set in a small Mississippi town in the late 1950s, Mother of Pearl is populated by original characters with themes of identity and the true meaning of family interwoven throughout. The story revolves around twenty-eight-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, a fifteen-year-old white girl who is the daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Their paths cross through Joody Two Sun, a seer, who sets up camp along the riverbank just outside of town and becomes Even's lover. Both Even and Valuable are seeking the family, love, and commitment they never had, and their search ultimately takes both of them to places they never dreamed they'd go.