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Jonathan Odell

Biography

Jonathan Odell

Jonathan Odell is the author of two novels, THE HEALING (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2012) and THE VIEW FROM DELPHI (MacAdam/Cage, 2004), which has been updated and republished as MISS HAZEL AND THE ROSA PARKS LEAGUE. Odell was born and raised in Mississippi, growing up in the institutional segregation of a small town. In college, he sold EBONY PICTORIAL HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICA door to door in black neighborhoods across the South while the Klan tried to discourage him. He now resides in Minnesota. 

Jonathan Odell

Books by Jonathan Odell

by Jonathan Odell - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Embittered and distrusting, Vida is harassed by Delphi’s racist sheriff and haunted by the son she lost to the world. Hazel, too, has lost a son and can’t keep a grip on her fractured life. After drunkenly crashing her car into a manger scene while gunning for the baby Jesus, Hazel is sedated and bed-ridden. Hazel’s husband hires Vida to keep tabs on his unpredictable wife and to care for his sole surviving son. Forced to spend time together, the two women find they have more in common than they thought, and together they turn the town on its head.

by Jonathan Odell - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In pre-Civil War Mississippi, cholera claims the life of Amanda Satterfield’s 12-year-old beloved daughter, Becky. Mistress Amanda blames her husband for refusing to call for a doctor in time to save their only child. Grief-stricken and plunged into madness, Amanda orders an ebony-skinned newborn slave girl brought to the great house as a replacement for her daughter.