Cruel Harvest by Fran Elizabeth Grubb

Fran Grubb's was a horrific childhood.  The fifth of seven children born to a vicious alcoholic who beat his wife and children.  Fran spent her early years in a series of rattletrap cars and ramshackle huts as her family followed the seasons as migrant farm workers.  The children worked the fields from sunup to sundown, crawling into the dusty cotton sacks to hide from the truant officers, for fear of a a beating from their father if they were caught.

It was a hollow existence:  nomadic, extreme poverty and deprivation, with no comfort.  Fran's father sold her older brother for five dollars, murdered her infant sister and sexually molested his other other daughters.

Fran could be excused if she were bitter.  But she is not.  Even as she watched her mother and older sisters run away from the family, disappearing one by one, even as she sought ot make sense of her circumstances, even as she struggled to get her young adult life on track, Fran was able to dow what her father could not - love, enjoy life, embrace God.

There is more, much more, to this story.  There is wickedness and despair.  But there is also courage and hope. And a happy ending too.

This was a hard book to read but it is also one I did not want to put down.  Fran Grubb handled the telling of her story with grace and dignity.  Even without graphic details, one could envision the horrors of her life. 
I am in awe that in spite of her tragic circumstances, she kept clinging to hope; believing in a God that did not seem to answer her prayers.

I was not ready for the book to end and hope she plans to share more of her life and that of her siblings as they one by one removed themselves from the monster they called "daddy".  I hope that one day she is able to find Mary Anne and Millie.

While the book is filled with horrors, Fran's ability to love and forgive is the real story.

Should you buy the book?  Without a doubt!!


I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.