That leaves Clover in the care of a stepmother she hardly knows. Her dad, Gaten Hill, dies suddenly in an automobile accident just hours after marrying Sara Kate, a white woman. This is a beautiful, soft, sad, and sweet story told by Clover Lee Hill, a ten-year-old black girl living in South Carolina. “Black vernacular as convincing as Alice Walker’s, imaginative metaphors that rival Maya Angelou’s and humor as delicious as Zora Neale Hurston’s.” - Publishers Weekly Read more Sanders writes with wit and authority in this unusual gem of a love story.” - Chicago Tribune Clover is very much the genuine item.” - The New York Times Book Review

The author has staked out an impressive new territory here, replete with peach farmers, textile workers, drunks and crazy people, with the newly middle class as well as the terminally poor. In the spirit of Cold Sassy Tree and The Secret Life of Bees, Clover is a witty, insightful classic for readers of all ages. Now on our thirtieth anniversary we have the pleasure of republishing this Algonquin classic in trade paperback, with an original essay by the author. First published by Algonquin in 1990 and winner of the Lillian Smith Award for Southern literature that enhances racial awareness, Clover is a national bestseller and has been recommended reading for classrooms across the country. Just hours later, an automobile accident compels Clover to forge a relationship with the new stepmother she hardly knows in this beautiful, enduring novel about a family lost and found. “An honest and refreshing novel that makes an important statement about the barriers between blacks and whites” by the author of Her Own Place ( San Francisco Chronicle).Ĭlover Hill is ten years old when her father, the principal of the local elementary school, marries a white woman, Sara Kate.

Clover by Dori Sanders