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Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound is set on a Mississippi cotton farm after World War II. Henry McAllan has dragged his wife, Laura, and their children to the remote farm. Laura christens it "Mudbound" and struggles with the difficult life that comes with it. Henry's father, Pappy, is bossy, racist, and misogynistic. They are joined by two men coming home from the war, Henry's brother, Jamie, and Ronsel, son of Henry's black tenant farmers. Ronsel is enraged at the treatment of blacks in the Jim Crow south, but he and Jamie became fast friends. Told from the perspective of six different characters, Hillary Jordan's debut novel has won the Bellwether Prize for literature of social responsibility and has received mostly positive reviews. The San Antonio Express-News says, "With authentic, earthy prose — 'His lips were dark red, like the gills of a bass' — Jordan picks at the scabs of racial inequality that will perhaps never fully heal and brings just enough heartbreak to this intimate, universal tale, just enough suspense, to leave us contemplating how the lives and motives of these vivid characters might have been different."