Grisham grew up in Arkansas, the son of a cotton farmer, and went on to Law School but swiftly left that field of endeavor. From his first responses, it was obvious that he possessed 'gravitas' beyond his public persona. One night, with a bunch of old friends in an apartment above Times Square, we tuned in to tv before turning in and The Bill Moyers Report was being aired his guest was John Grisham.

I learned that John Grisham should write more books in this genre because this is his best work.forget all those clients, partners, pelicans. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a Division of Random House, Inc. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and he finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.įor six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and sometimes each other. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. 'The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day.

A painted house by john grisham