The Help

The Help

Amidst the turbulence of the Civil Rights movement, three Mississippi women quietly start their own revolution with a book, some toilets and a chocolate pie.

In Jackson, Mississippi, there are lines that are not crossed. Black maids raise the while children, but no one trusts them not to steal the silver. Aibileen is a black maid, raising her seventeenth white child, but with a bitter heart after the death of her son. Minny is the sassiest woman in Mississippi; she can cook like nobody's business, but she can't keep her lip buttoned. And Skeeter is a white woman with a degree but no ring on her finger. Home from college, Skeeter discovers her belovered maid Constantine has disappeared without a trace. And as different as they may be, these three women will come together for a clandestine project that will put all of them at risk.

But The Help is not just about race, it's about how women, whether mothers or daughter, the help or the boss, relate to each other. It's about the dramas of domestic life: pride, competition on the cooking and home fronts, complex emotions about the raising of young children, and that horrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, dealt with them and love them, even, better than you…

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. The Help is her first novel.

The Help
Penguin Australia
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Price: $32.95