One of the finest books I've read and I highly recommend. While between the two wars, the southern United States is immersed in racism and segregation, heroines well marked character grab life with an iron hand. Here is no place for affectations; the pen is mesmerizing without being heavy. The atmosphere of the sticky glue Alabama us to the skin page after page. If the film adaptation proved to be of good quality, it is far short of the narrative power of the novel. A demanding reader of advice: do not miss.