Rye Hill

by Robin Cannon

"The spirituals always signified that something important was going on; something extraordinary that needed God's special attention." A young boy seeks friendship in a forbidden place where he learns valuable lessons in acceptance, forgiveness, and the indomitable human spirit. Young Skeet LeMay and his parents are migrant workers who move from one place to the next in search of work. After they settle on a large farm where Skeet's father has been hired to pick peaches in the orchard, the young boy witnesses something horrific and perverse, changing his life forever. Caught between a bitter father who is despic-able to the core and a gentle, loving mother who has ac-quiesced to her husband's abusive ways, Skeet must di-rect his own fate as he embarks on a journey to Rye Hill, following the one thing his father never had...a moral compass. "I was off to find that colored boy. I didn't know what I would say to him or what he would say back, but I was so inclined to make his acquaintance that no one, not even Pa, could stop me now."

178 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2015