Mudbound

Mudbound is a 2008 novel by author Hillary Jordan. It is set in the southern delta of Mississippi in the years immediately following World War II. Over the course of the story, the fates of two intertwined families are irreversibly changed by a tragedy provoked by virulent racism. The novel explores themes of love, family, loyalty, duty, and the uneasy relationship African Americans have had with the South in the years following emancipation.

As the story begins, a 30-year-old woman named Laura is resigned to what she considers her inevitable spinsterhood, now that she is past marrying age. But soon she meets a man named Henry McAllan who courts and then marries her. At the outset of their marriage, they live in Memphis and Laura gives birth to two daughters. When the husband of Henry’s sister Eboline kills himself, Henry buys a farm near her and moves the family to help her in the aftermath of the suicide. Henry rents a nice home for the family but learns that he has been the victim of a scam when they arrive. They are forced to live in the farmhouse on the farmland, without electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing.