Abanda: A Novel

This semi-autobiographical novel is set in a small, rural Alabama community during the height of World War II. At that time, the modern Civil Rights Movement was scarcely in its infancy.

The main characters are two ten-year-old sons of sharecroppers—one black and one white. Amid the difficulties, deprivations, and disadvantages resulting from living on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, they share a friendship that carries them through tough times and enriches their lives with joy. A terrible sequence of events threatens that friendship and rocks their world.

John H. Hayes (1934 - 2013) was Franklin N. Parker Professor Emeritus in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He authored and edited numerous academic volumes and wrote a collection of popular essays: If You Don't Like the Possum, Enjoy the Sweet Potatoes: Some Principles for Travel along the Road of Life (Cascade Books). This is his first novel.