Wade in the Water

Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walkers classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidds The Secret Life of Bees, a gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class that explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, MississippiWade in the Watertells the story of Ella, a black, unloved, precocious eleven-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ellas community to carry out some research.Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there.The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. Jamess carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.Told in two voices, Ellas and Ms. St. Jamess, andsetaround richly developed characters, this riveting, page turning coming of age story will keep readers entranced until the last shocking revelation.