Take a trip to the South with ‘The Well and The Mine’

  Albert and Leta Moore are raising their family the best way they know how in 1930s rural Northern Alabama. When 9-year-old Tess witnesses a mysterious woman walk up onto their back porch and drop a baby into the family’s well, at first no one in the family believes her. But when the tiny body is found in the well, the tragedy causes the entire family to stop and think about how their world is changing around them.
  In her debut novel, “The Well and the Mine,” Gin Phillips paints a picture of life in the early 1930s in rural Alabama and tells the story of family, trying times and love.
  Tess and her older sister, Virgie, set out to find who the mystery woman was who invaded their safe family life. They make a list of all the women in town who have had babies recently, and as they check on each family they discover that many of their neighbors are barely managing to stay alive.
  Meanwhile, their father struggles to make a decent living in the coal mines, where the mine bosses make life both inside the mine and out a living hell. His wife, Leta, cares for the home and the animals, often sacrificing parts of her own meals so that her children have enough. But the family is happy, sharing what they have with their neighbors and holding on to their faith, until an accident involving their youngest child, Jack, threatens to bring the family to its knees.
  Phillips captures the essence and magic of the South, its traditions and culture in this captivating book. Her detailed descriptions have readers almost tasting the hand-churned butter melting off homemade biscuits with just a dab of pear preserves for sweetening.
  But Phillips doesn’t put a shiny coat on the story. She tells about the black dust from the coal mines that would never come off your skin no matter how hard you scrub and how picking cotton would make your fingers bleed. She depicts how hard life was during the Depression for those living in the rural South without making it sound whiny or crass.
  “The Well and the Mine” is hands down one of the best books I’ve read this year. Take a trip to the South through Gin Phillips' words. You’ll be longing for cornbread, peas and sliced tomatoes before you know it.