The Well and the Mine

Gin Phillips lives in Birmingham, Alabama; THE WELL AND THE MINE was turned down by every mainstream US publisher to whom it was submitted and was eventually published by Hawthorne, a tiny press in Oregon. It went on to win the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and the paperback rights went to Penguin US.

?A quietly bold debut, full of heart.? ?"O, The Oprah Magazine" ?When you close the book, you?ll miss these characters. But "The Well and the Mine" doesn?t just give you characters who?ll stay with you?it gives you a whole world.??Fannie Flagg, author of "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Caf?" and "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man" ?Gin Phillips has a remarkable ear for dialogue and a tenderhearted eye for detail; you can hear the pecans and hickory nuts falling from the trees and feel the stillness of a hot summer night. A whisper runs through the novel?the ghosts of places and people and luscious peach pies.? ? "Los Angeles Times" ?A tight-knit miner's family struggles against poverty and racism in Phillips's evocative first novel, set in Depression-era Alabama. Throughout, she moves skillfully between the points of view...Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page.? ?"Publishers Weekl