The Colour of Milk: A Novel
Her name is Mary. Her hair is the color of milk. And this is her story, told in a compelling voice as British writer Leyshon brings her narrator  brilliantly to life. Mary begins her account in 1830, when she is 14 and forced to leave the only world she has known, her abusive father’s farm, where she slaves from sunup to sundown alongside her three sisters. Against her will, Mary’s father sends her to live as housemaid for the ailing vicar’s wife so that he can collect the money. It is in her new life at the vicarage that this illiterate girl realizes  her greatest dream, to learn to read and write. But the learning comes at a tragic cost. Resolved to tell the truth of what happened, Mary draws the reader in from the opening pages. Here is a headstrong, forthright, optimistic character determined to survive her wretched circumstances in a literary jewel crafted by an accomplished writer. --Diane Holcomb