A Cure for Dreams A Novel

Generations of Southern women deal with hard times and heartless men in this "joyous" novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Ellen Foster ( The Washington Post Book World). In "a witty and explosive story about men and women, bad girls and good girls, love and laundry," Kaye Gibbons paints a portrait of shrewd, resourceful women prevailing through hardships and finding unexpected pleasures along the way: gossip, gambling, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing more than they're supposed to ( The Houston Post). In A Cure for Dreams, the acclaimed author "once again demonstrates her extraordinary talent . . . Utterly engaging and convincing" ( The Boston Globe). "This episodic novel, Gibbons's third, is set during the Depression in back-country Virginia and Kentucky. In 19 vignettes, Betty Davies Randolph reveals her childhood and her mother's life along Milk Farm Road. Gibbons, winner of several literary awards for her first novel Ellen Foster, has captured magnificently the dailiness and sense of community of rural life—from midwives and WPA ballads to suicides and men gone wild.