The Golden Apples: Eudora Welty

First published in 1949, The Golden Apples is an acutely observed, richly atmospheric portrayal of small town life in Morgana, Mississippi. There`s Snowdie, who has to bring up her twin boys alone after her husband, King Maclain, disappears one day, discarding his hat on the banks of the Big Black. There`s Loch Morrison, convalescing with malaria, who watches from his bedroom window as wayward Virgie Rainey meets a sailor in the vacant house opposite. Meanwhile, Miss Eckhart the piano teacher, grieving the loss of her most promising pupil, tries her hand at arson.

Eudora Welty has a fine ear for dialogue and describes each of the characters in incisive, haunting prose. `...in the South,` she says, `everybody stays busy talking all the time - they`re not sorry for you to overhear their tales`. Welty deftly picks up their stories to create an unflinching potrait of everyday life in the American South and offers a deeply moving look at human nature.