The Gods of Green County

The Gods of Green County by Mary Elizabeth Pope is a gripping narrative set in Depression-era rural Arkansas, where Coralee Harper wrestles for justice for her deceased brother and her own sanity.

In 1926, in the austere landscape of rural Green County, Arkansas, where cotton and poverty prevail, young Coralee Harper dreams of a family and a place in her community. Her world is shattered when her brother Buddy is killed by the influential sheriff; Coralee struggles to overcome his death and the injustice it represents. She begins to see her dead brother around town, leading her to question whether she is clairvoyant, confused, or losing her mind.

The forces threatening Coralee and the town's fabric are beyond her comprehension. Leroy Harrison, an ambitious new lawyer, makes a grievous error that earns him a judgeship but leaves him with a lifelong guilty conscience. An evangelical preacher with his snake-handling congregation, the town's women—Coralee's mother among them—who pass their own judgments on Coralee's actions, Sheriff Wiley Slocum with his own hidden secrets, and Coralee's husband Earl, struggling to juggle his work at the cotton gin with fighting for his family and Coralee's well-being, all play pivotal roles.

As Coralee faces a sanity hearing presided over by Judge Leroy Harrison, the judge is forced to determine both Coralee’s destiny and his own. The fallout from his verdict further entangles him with the sheriff's extensive influence, revealing the corrosive nature of power—his own included.