Ford County

Zusatztext   “Grisham shows off his literary chops: He can do wry, emotional, funny, serious.” — USA Today     “The best writing John Grisham has ever done.” —Pat Conroy   “Terrifically charming . . . You absolutely can’t stop reading.” — The Washington Post From the Trade Paperback edition. Informationen zum Autor John Grisham has written twenty-one previous novels and one work of nonfiction, The Innocent Man , published in 2006. He lives in Virginia and Mississippi. www.jgrisham.com www.doubleday.com [RGG logo] Our Readers’ Guides are available at www.doubleday.com/readers From the Hardcover edition. Leseprobe Blood Drive          By the time the news of Bailey's accident spread through the rural settlement of Box Hill, there were several versions of how it happened. Someone from the construction company called his mother and reported that he had been injured when some scaffoldingcollapsed at a building site in downtown Memphis, that he was undergoing surgery, was stable, and was expected to survive. His mother, an invalid who weighed over four hundred pounds and was known to be excitable, missed some of the facts as she began to screamand carry on. She called friends and neighbors, and with each replaying of the tragic news various details were altered and enlarged. She neglected to write down the phone number of the person from the company, so there was no one to call to verify or discountthe rumors that were multiplying by the minute.        One of Bailey's co-workers, another boy from Ford County, called his girlfriend in Box Hill and gave an account that varied somewhat: Bailey had been run over by a bulldozer, which was next to the scaffolding, and he was practically dead. The surgeonswere working on him, but things were grim.        Then an administrator from a hospital in Memphis called Bailey's home, asked to speak to his mother, and was told that she was laid up in bed, too upset to talk, and unable to come to the phone. The neighbor who answered the phone pumped the administratorfor details, but didn't get much. Something collapsed at a construction site, maybe a ditch in which the young man was working, or some such variation. Yes, he was in surgery, and the hospital needed basic information.      Bailey's mother's small brick home quickly became a busy place. Visitors had begun arriving by late afternoon: friends, relatives, and several pastors from the tiny churches scattered around Box Hill. The women gathered in the kitchen and den and gossipednonstop while the phone rang constantly. The men huddled outside and smoked cigarettes. Casseroles and cakes began to appear.        With little to do, and with scant information about Bailey's injuries, the visitors seized upon every tiny fact, analyzed it, dissected it, then passed it along to the women inside, or to the men outside. A leg was mangled and would probably be amputated.There was a severe brain injury. Bailey fell four floors with the scaffolding, or maybe it was eight. His chest was crushed. A few of the facts and theories were simply created on the spot. There were even a few somber inquiries about funeral arrangements.        Bailey was nineteen years old and in his short life had never had so many friends and admirers. The entire community loved him more and more as the hours passed. He was a good boy, raised right, a much better person than his sorry father, a man no onehad seen in years.      Bailey's ex-girlfriend showed up and was soon the center of attention. She was distraught and overwhelmed and cried easily, especially when talking about her be...

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"Grisham shows off his literary chops: He can do wry, emotional, funny, serious."
-USA Today

"The best writing John Grisham has ever done."
-Pat Conroy

"Terrifically charming . . . You absolutely can't stop reading."
-The Washington Post

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product details

• Authors: John Grisham
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 05.02.2010
• EAN: 9780440296447
• ISBN: 978-0-440-29644-7
• No. of pages: 340
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 175 mm x 23 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature