Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Keepers of the House
by Shirley Ann Grau
Summary
Abigail Howland Mason, the heir to a prominent Alabama farming dynasty, narrates a saga that reaches back across generations to recover a long concealed marriage between her grandfather and a Black housekeeper, then follows the political and personal fallout when the secret breaks. Grau anchors the story in the rhythms of rural Southern life and the slow violence of caste, allowing her narrator's measured voice to intensify the book's reckoning. It remains a key Southern novel of the early civil rights era.
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Historical Context & Significance
Grau faced significant backlash in the South for the book's themes. She even received threats from the KKK after the Pulitzer win.