The Sound of Gravel

A captivating and profoundly moving real account of a girl growing up in a polygamist household.

The thirty-ninth child of her father's forty-two children was Ruth Warner. Ruth was raised on a farm in a remote area of rural Mexico, where the authorities ignore the customs of her community. She now lives in a dilapidated home without indoor plumbing or electricity. Preachers at church teach that women can only get to Heaven by getting into polygamous marriages and bearing as many children as they can, and that God will punish the wicked by destroying the planet. Ruth's mother remarries, taking the second wife role in the church when her father, the colony's founding prophet, is brutally killed by his brother in a struggle for dominance.

Ruth and her siblings are carried back and forth between Mexico and the United States, where Ruth's mother receives welfare and her husband performs a variety of odd jobs, in need of government support and more revenue. Ruth learns to appreciate her time in the United States and realises that maybe the community she was born into is not the best fit for her. She tries to strike a balance between her intense love for her siblings and her will to improve her own life as she starts to mistrust her family's values and her mother's decisions.

The amazing story of one girl's battle for peace and love, The Sound of Gravel, is told from the innocent and optimistic viewpoint of a kid. This is a close-knit story of bravery, resiliency, and victory.