Annotation
In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. "Jewel" is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.
Characters
| Name | Hilburn, Jewel |
| Gender | Female |
| Traits | Married |
| Mother | |
| Pregnant | |
| Name | Hilburn, Brenda Kay |
| Gender | Female |
| Genre | Domestic Southern fiction Fiction |
| Topics | Down Syndrome Mental disability Parenthood Mothers and daughters Redemptive love |
| Setting | Mississippi Backwoods |