A book based entirely on its cover

Title: Mary Coin
Author: Marisa Silver
Publication date: 2013

The photograph is famous. Iconic even. Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother symbolizes a mother's desperation in a California migrant workers' camp in 1936. Marisa Silver's 2013 novel Mary Coin tells a fictional story about the subject of that photograph.

Weaving together the stories of the migrant mother Mary Coin with the photographer Vera Dare and a social historian Walker Dodge. While some may struggle to abandon thoughts of the photo's true story, I found Silver's characters compelling and was pulled into their world willingly.

We first meet Mary Coin as an adolescent and come to know the Oklahoma girl who already knows who she is. Vera Dare is already a professional portrait photographer in San Francisco when her part of the story is introduced. The book itself however begins with its male lead character Walker Dodge. Despite studying the history of others, Walker struggles to come to terms with his own family history as he cares for his dying father, the patriarch of what was once one of California's farm dynasties (if there was such a thing.)

Mary read local news about wheat prices and articles about the new tractors that could cut and thresh in a third of the time it took a man and a mule to do the job. Her mother claimed these machines were no better than your own two hands, but Mary knew that her mother decided something old was better than something new only to bury want. 

Mary Coin was the selection for my fabulous book club in March. I finished reading it a week ago but delayed my blog until our club met. My club rarely lets me down and this selection will likely be one of my favorite picks for 2015.

Four stars

Next challenge: A book by an author you've never read before