num_pages: 9
description: Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.
language: English
title: The Bean Trees
titlecomplete: The Bean Trees
characters: Lou Ann Ruiz, Taylor Greer, Mattie, Turtle Greer, Esperanza, Estevan
genres: Realistic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, School, Literature, Classics, Adult, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 152505
places: Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
series: Greer Family
publisher: Recorded Books