In the long hot summer of 1847, the pregnant slave Dessa Rose sits in a white man's cellar, waiting for her child to be born so that she can be hanged. A world away, in the unfinished mansion of her run-down plantation, the ex-debutante Miss Rufel, abandoned by husband and family, also waits - a prisoner of a different kind. It is to Miss Rufel's farm that Dessa is brought by the runaways who rescue her - and it is there that, out of hatred and suspicion, an unforgettable friendship is forged.
- ISBN10 1860494218
- ISBN13 9781860494215
- Publish Date 15 January 1998 (first published 1 September 1987)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 31 December 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Virago Press Ltd
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 240
- Language English