God’s Acres

by David Gerard

In God’s Acres, six-year old Bud tells the story, set in the 1950s, of his family’s relocation from St. Joseph, Missouri, to a small farm just outside the town. That twelve-acre homestead represents the idyllic life for Bud’s mother, the story’s central figure— a woman driven by unwavering religious beliefs and a rigid work ethic— but it turns out to be the source of much heartache. With an endearing earnestness and bits of laugh-out-loud humor, Bud intertwines signal developments in the lives of his family members with key world events— all of which seem to be of equal importance from his perspective as a child. At the start of each chapter, an adult Bud speaks from the present, closing the circle on a complex tale of family relationships.