Published in 1976, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the story of the Logans, a black family living in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. It is the sequel to Taylor's first novel about the Logan family, Song of Trees. Roll of Thunder takes place in 1933 and follows the Logan family as they navigate their lives in the Jim Crow South. There is an intense focus on the land they own as a family and the necessity of keeping it. The novel is very much grounded in the history of the South and is laced with a rich body of allusions to black history, from slavery through the mid-century Civil Rights Era.
The novel was met with critical acclaim when it was published and was the...
