A Painted House

could be a “good crop.”

Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in

rural Arkansas. 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. 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.

For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes,

each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could

possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop

but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.

“A Painted House” is a moving story of one boy’s journey from innocence to experience.

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