Hillary Jordan - Mudbound

Praise forMUDBOUND

A compelling family tragedy, a confluence of romantic attraction and racial hatred that eventually falls like an avalanche... The last third of the book is downright breathless.

The Washington Post Book World

[A] supremely readable debut novel... Mudbound is packed with drama. Pick it up, then pass it on.

People, Critics Choice, 4-star review

Mudbound argues for humanity and equality, while highlighting the effects of war... [The] mixture of the predictable and the unpredictable will keep readers turning the pages... It feels like a classic tragedy, whirling toward a climax. [An] ambitious first novel.

The Dallas Morning News

By the end of the very short first chapter, I was completely hooked... [Mudbound is] so carefully considered and so full of weight... This is a book in which love and rage cohabit. This is a book that made me cry.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

[A] tremendous gift, a story that challenges the 1950s textbook version of our history and leaves its readers completely in the thrall of her characters... Mudbound may well become a staple of syllabi for courses in Southern literature.

Paste magazine, 4-star review

Does an excellent job of capturing the impacts of racism both casual and deliberate.

The Denver Post

[An] impressive first novel... Jordan is an author to watch.

Rocky Mountain News

This is storytelling at the height of its powers: the ache of wrongs not yet made right, the fierce attendance of history made as real as rain, as true as this minute. Hillary Jordan writes with the force of a Delta storm. Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still.

Barbara Kingsolver

Is it too early to say, after just one book, that heres a voice that will echo for years to come?... Jordan picks at the scabs of racial inequality that will perhaps never fully heal and brings just enough heartbreak to this intimate, universal tale, just enough suspense, to leave us contemplating how the lives and motives of these vivid characters might have been different.

San Antonio Express-News

This book packs an emotional wallop that will engage adult and adolescent readers... The six narrators here have enough time and space to develop a complicated set of relationships. The fault lines among them converge into a crackling gunpoint confrontation, a stunning scene that ranks as my personal favorite of this year.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Refusing to turn the page is not an option. Jordan is able to make her painful subject matter irresistible by putting the breath of life in these people.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Jordan has an uncanny knack for nailing the voices of characters she has no business knowing, but know them she does. Mudbound also reminds us of the sacrifices made by all soldiers, and how the home front isnt always as appreciative as it should be.

MSNBC.com, Cant Miss column

Luminous... The power of Mudbound is that the characters speak directly to the reader. And they will stay with you long after you put the book down.

Jackson Free Press

A page-turning read that conveys a serious message without preaching.

The Observer (U.K.)

Mudbound dramatizes the human cost of unthinking hatred... That [she] makes a hopeful ending seem possible, after the violence and injustice that precede it, is a tribute to the novels voices... The characters live in the novel as individuals, black and white, which gives Mudbound its impact.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If Hillary Jordans new book, Mudbound, is ever made into a movie, the odds are very good that it will end up on the short list for an Academy Award. Not just because of the quality of Jordans writing... but also because she tackles some of this countrys most enduring and well-trodden emotional and historical territory.

Albany Times Union

The recognition [Jordan]s received for the work has been nothing short of sparkling... Mudbound is as much a tale of racism as it is the transcending powers of love and friendship.

Austin American-Statesman

Full of rich details and dimensional, engaging characters, and it sucks readers in like quicksand from its opening scene.

Creative Loafing, Atlanta

[A] heart-rending debut novel... Jordans beautiful, haunting prose makes it a seductive page-turner.

DailyCandy

A meticulous, moving narrative.

Texas Monthly

Jordan has crafted a story that shines... A good historical novel with a twist of an ending.

The Oklahoman

This is one of the most extraordinary novels Ive read all year... Set against the pull of the landand of the lonely heartthe ensuing tragedy is both inevitable and heart shattering.

Dame magazine

Stunning and disturbing... A story of heroism, loyalty, respect and abiding love.

Rocky Mount Telegram

No denying that readers in search of straightforward storytelling will be hooked.

Memphis Flyer

Debut novelist Hillary Jordan has crafted an unforgettable tale of family loyalties, the spiraling after-effects of war and the unfathomable human behavior generated by racism.

BookPage

[A] beautiful debut... A superbly rendered depiction of the fury and terror wrought by racism.

Publishers Weekly

[A] poignant and moving debut novel... Jordan faultlessly portrays the values of the 1940s as she builds to a stunning conclusion. Highly recommended.

Library Journal, starred review

Mudbound is a real page-turnera tangle of history, tragedy, and romance powered by guilt, moral indignation, and a near chorus of unstoppable voices.

Stewart ONan, author of A Prayer for the Dying and Last Night at the Lobster

What inspired you to write Mudbound?

My grandparents had a farm in Lake Village, Arkansas, just after World War II, and I grew up hearing stories about it. It was a primitive place, an unpainted shotgun shack with no electricity, running water, or telephone. They named it Mud-bound because whenever it rained, the roads would flood and theyd be stranded for days.

Though they only lived there for a year, my mother, aunt, and grandmother spoke of the farm often, laughing and shaking their heads by turns, depending on whether the story in question was funny or horrifying. Often they were both, as Southern stories tend to be. I loved listening to them, even the ones Id heard dozens of times before. They were a peephole into a strange and marvelous world, a world full of contradictions, of terrible beauty. The stories revealed things about my family, especially about my grandmother, who was the heroine of most of them for the simple reason that when calamity struck, my grandfather was inevitably elsewhere.

To my mother and aunt, the year they spent at Mudbound was a grand adventure; and indeed, that was how all their stories portrayed it. It was not until much later that I realized what an ordeal that year must have been for my grandmothera city-bred woman with two young childrenand that, in fact, these were stories of survival.

I began the novel (without knowing I was doing any such thing) in grad school. I had an assignment to write a few pages in the voice of a family member, and I decided to write about the farm from my grandmothers point of view. But what came out was not a merry adventure story but something darker and more complex. What came out was, When I think of the farm, I think of mud.