Mother of Pearl (novel)

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Mother of Pearl (1999) is a novel by Melinda Haynes, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection, June 1999. The audio version is performed by Nana Visitor.

Plot introduction

Set in Petal, Mississippi, a small town at the close of the 1950s, this novel tells the story of the 28-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, a 15-year-old white girl, who is the daughter of the town prostitute and an unknown father. They are both separately seeking the family, love, and affection they had not had before, until their paths cross owing to their common acquaintance of loner mystic Joody Two Sun.

Characters in Mother of Pearl

• Even Grade – 28-year-old black man
• Valuable Korner – 15-year-old white girl
• Bea – white woman, partner of Neva
• Canaan Mosley – black man, older friend and neighbor of Even Grade
• Enid Korner – Valuable's mother
• Luvenia Korner – Valuable's grandmother, Enid's mother
• Grace Johnson – black woman, caretaker of Joleb
• Jackson – white boy, friend of Valuable and father of Pearl
• Joleb Green – white boy, friend of Valuable
• Joody Two Sun – black-Indian woman, partner of Even Grade
• Louise Green – aunt of Joleb
• Neva – white woman, partner of Bea
• Pearl – son of Valuable and Jackson
• Russ (Father Russell L. Landry) – Catholic priest