[Read by Jorjeana Marie]In 1972 on Mudas Summers' seventeenth birthday, her mama, Ella, is found hanging from the rafters of their home. Most people assume Ella's no-good husband did it. Others think Ella did it herself. Muddy is determined to find out either way. But the town keeps its secrets buried deep. Muddy's friend Bobby Marshall knows that better than most. Though he passes for white, one of his ancestors was Frannie Crow, a slave hanged a century ago on nearby Hark Hill Plantation. Adorning the town square is a seat built from her gallows; it's known as Liar's Bench. The answers Muddy seeks soon lead back to Hark Hill, to hatred and corruption that have echoed through the years, and to lies she must be brave enough to confront at last.

Product Description: Grim yet ultimately inspiring, this harrowing biography catalogues years of institutional abuse that took place in the Saint Thomas–Saint Vincent Orphan Asylum, a Catholic orphanage in Anchorage, Kentucky. After many years of neglect by their drug-addicted mother, Kim and her three older sisters were abandoned to the uncharitable care of the Sisters of Charity...read more