# The Well And The Mine

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/gin-phillips/the-well-and-the-mine/9780748116515

![The Well And The Mine](https://quivercdn.com/covers/virago/gin-phillips/the-well-and-the-mine_978-07-4811-651-5.jpg?v=2026-05-19%2005%3A18%3A57)

- Book: [The Well And The Mine](https://www.bookquiver.com/gin-phillips/the-well-and-the-mine) ([The Well And The Mine.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/gin-phillips/the-well-and-the-mine.md))
- Authors: [Gin Phillips](https://www.bookquiver.com/gin-phillips)
- Publisher: virago
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-07-4811-651-5
- Published: 2009-11-05
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

The gripping debut novel from the author of FIERCE KINGDOM, and a story about the power of the human spirit to give comfort in times of hardship. In 1931 Carbon Hill, a small Alabama coal-mining town, nine-year-old Tess Moore watches from the darkness of her back porch as a strange woman lifts the cover off the family well and tosses a baby in without a word. It is the height of the Depression; while Tess's father, Albert, performs backbreaking and dangerous work at the mine, her mother, Leta, makes do without meat on her table. But the family are luckier than most; the food they can grow on their plot of land has so far saved them from the crippling poverty and near-starvation that besets their neighbours. As Tess tries to unravel the mystery of the woman at the well, a portrait emerges of a family and a community struggling to survive the darkest of times. Resonant, vivid and clear-eyed in its portrayal of both the best and the worst of human nature, The Well and the Mine is a stunning novel about love, hope and the importance of doing the right thing.