In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Works Progress Administration as part of the New Deal, an initiative designed to propel the country out of the Great Depression. The Pack Horse Library Project served the most remote regions of Appalachia. Through the quiet but unflinching spirit of Bluet and a vivid cast of characters along her library delivery route, a remarkable and endearing story unfolds. Known in the community of Troublesome as Bluet, Cussy is inspired by the real-life curiosity of the Fugate family, who, as a result of a rare genetic condition unknown to medical science at the time, had blue skin. Author Kim Michele Richardson pulls back the curtain on a little-known chapter of American history and flawlessly weaves together compelling narratives of the Blue People of Kentucky and the Pack Horse Library Project. Cussy Mary, headstrong and independent, has other plans for her life.Īn unlikely heroine, Cussy Mary is not only dirt poor and unmarried at a time when a woman’s worth was determined by the man who possessed her she is also blue. She is devoted to her recently widowed father, despite her resistance to his efforts to see her married and settled. We meet 19-year-old Cussy Mary Carter, a coal miner’s daughter and Pack Horse Librarian. The Great Depression is ravaging the country, but in the hollers of rural Kentucky, poverty, isolation and hunger have been familiar foes for generations.

In The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, we travel deep into the Appalachian Mountains. They open our eyes, challenge our minds and offer us new perspective. The best historical fiction novels are well researched and imaginative, with characters who beckon to us, drawing us into their experiences and circumstances.

Historical fiction is a time machine, transporting us to another period and place, bringing history to life through storytelling.

The bookwoman