Chinaberry follows the adventures of a young boy as he travels to Texas from Alabama in search of work on a cotton farm. Upon arriving, he discovers the ranch of Anson and Lurie Winters, a young couple whose lives are defined by hard work, family, and a tragedy that haunts their past. Still's entrancing narrative centers on the boy's experience at the ranch under Anson's watchful eye and Lurie's doting care, highlighting the importance of home, whether...

"From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming...

An eye-opening and previously untold story, "Factory Girls" is the first look into the everyday lives of the migrant factory population in China. The author demonstrates how "the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago."

"His first-ever collection of stories, Jaime Cortez's Gordo is set in a migrant workers camp near Watsonville, California, in the 1970s. A young boy named Gordo fights back tears underneath a wrestler's mask as he is forced to fight other boys and grow into his father's expectations of manhood. As he comes of age, Gordo learns about sex, poverty, and discovers the wrenching divides between documented and undocumented immigrants. Fat Cookie, high schooler...

Few are pleased Sophie Deiner has returned to her Amish community, but a sudden illness leaves her no choice. She befriends a group of migrant workers but is appalled by their living conditions. When one is detained and threatened with deportation, Sophie begins advocating of their behalf. She soon finds her advocacy for change opposed by her ex, the farm foreman. She's convinced that she needs to fight for the powerless, but her efforts only makes...

A few generations from now, the coastlines of the continent have been redrawn by floods and tides. Global powers have agreed to not produce any new plastics, and what is left has become valuable: garbage is currency. In the region-wide junkyard that Appalachia has become, Coral is a "plucker," pulling plastic from the rivers and woods. She's stuck in Trashlands, a dump named for the strip club at its edge, where the local women dance for an endless...

Fay Jones abandons her Mississippi home and her abusive father, leaving a clutch of corrupt policemen, truck drivers, strip joint bouncers, and a pile of dead bodies in her wake.

Lenny, a mentally retarded child-man, and his lifelong friend George, dream of having their own ranch some day, until unintentional violence brings tragic consequences.

"Highway Blue tells the story of Anne-Marie and Cal: the story of their brief marriage, and also of their long estrangement. And when a violent ambush hurls the two of them cross-country on the road, it becomes the story of their search for salvation. On their ill-at-ease odyssey along the darker seams of the country--from sweaty motel rooms and darkened parking lots, encountering other whisky-soaked souls along the way--Anne-Marie sifts through the...

The "magnificent, funny, and terrifying" debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of God Don't Like Ugly (The San Francisco Chronicle).

Mama Ruby's known for taking things that aren't rightfully hers, like her best friend's stillborn infant, who she brought back to life and christened Maureen. She's also rumored to have done away with her husband. Some fear her, others try their best to avoid...