Publisher's Synopsis
The rural town of Whale's Rib, West Texas. Mid-1980s. 36-year-old Lemuel Fletcher has found himself in a predicament he never could have imagined. He's fallen in love with 16-year-old Mercy Griffin, his boss's precocious live-in servant girl. Lem's nephew, 19-year-old Stanwick, is also in love with Mercy. Whereas Stan's attachment exists only in his dreams, Lem and Mercy are physically involved. To complicate matters, Lem is white and Mercy is black. In a community where interracial relationships are harshly disallowed, their affair is known only to them. An explosive lie started by Mercy in order to protect Lem ignites all of Whale's Rib, so that none of the principal characters' lives can ever be the same.
