A profound portrait of family dynamics in the rural South and "an essential novel" (The New Yorker)

"As close to flawless as any reader could ask for... The living language [Allison] has created is as exact and innovative as the language of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye." -- The New York Times Book Review

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

The publication of Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina was a landmark event that won the author a National Book Award nomination and launched her into the literary spotlight. Critics have likened Allison to Harper Lee, naming her the first writer of her generation to dramatize the lives and language of poor whites in the South. Since its appearance, the novel has inspired an award-winning film and has been banned from libraries and classrooms, championed by fans, and defended by critics.

Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family -- a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, "cold as death, mean as a snake," becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney -- and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.
Show Less

• We started tracking this book on August 2, 2012.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 207 times in the past 4,634 days.
• The current price of this book is $6.99 last checked 9 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $1.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on March 28, 2025.
• This book has been $1.99 10 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on February 16, 2025.
• This book has been $14.99 35 times since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionLGBTQ+ Literary Fiction

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled