A few minutes after 9 p.m. on April 5, 1936, a massive tornado careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than two hundred people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, who were not included in the official casualty figures. When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, bruised and nearly drowned, makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family - her hardworking husband, Virgil; her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama; and Promise, Dreama's beautiful light skinned three-month old son. Navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family, Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one, including Jo, The McNabbs' dutiful teenage daughter, who has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she's found her brother Tommy, and vows to protect him. During the harrowing hours of chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and to battle the demons that link them. A story of loss, hope, grit, courage, and race, Promise reminds us of the transformative power that comes from confronting our most trouble relations with one another.--back cover.
adult
Minrose Gwin.
