A boys account of growing up in the South during the depression era. Both a rare first novel and a new American classic, Sams novel has been compared to Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird. nFrom the author of The Whisper of the River and Epiphany. nIn this coming-of-age story, Porter Osbourne Jr. is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the Depression. On a red-clay farm in Georgia, he learns all there is to know about cotton-chopping, hog-killing, watermelon-thumping, and mule-handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex. But it is Porters family-- his genteel, patient mother, his swarm of cousins, his snuff-dipping grandmother, and, most of all, his beloved though flawed father--who teaches Porter the painful truths about growing up strong enough to run with the horsemen. n nThe writing is elegant, reflective, and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience . . . gifted with perfect timing.--The New York Times Book Review n nRemarkable both for its humor and its sustained and detailed picture of a mischievous Southern farmboys life during the Great Depression.--The Washington Postn