About this item
A riveting, deeply affecting true story of one girl's coming-of-age in a polygamist family.RUTH WARINER was the thirty-ninth of her father's forty-two children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can only ascend to Heaven by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible. After Ruth's father -- the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony -- is brutally murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.
About the Author
RUTH WARINER lives in Portland, Oregon. At the age of fifteen, Ruth left Colonia LeBaron, the polygamist Mormon colony where she grew up, and moved to California. She raised her three youngest sisters in California and Oregon. After earning her GED, she put herself through college and graduate school, eventually becoming a high school Spanish teacher. She remains close to her siblings and is happily married. The Sound of Gravel is her first book.
