Mother of Pearl

Melinda Haynes’s debut is set in Petal, Mississippi, in the 1950s, and centers on the unlikely bond between Even Grade, a Black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, a white teenager unsure of her place. Around them, Haynes builds a large cast and a lyrical, layered story of race, longing, and community in the segregated South, told in richly poetic language.