The Help

Front Cover
Berkley Books, 2010 - Fiction - 464 pages
Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Black maids raise white children, but aren?t trusted not to steal the silver. Some lines will never be crossed.Aibileen is a black maid: smart, regal, and raising her seventeenth white child. Yet something shifted inside Aibileen the day her own son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen?s best friend, is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi. But even her extraordinary cooking won?t protect Minny from the consequences of her tongue.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter returns home with a degree and a head full of hope, but her mother will not be happy until there?s a ring on her finger. Seeking solace with Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone. But why will no one tell her where?Seemingly as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny?s lives converge over a clandestine project that will not only put them all at risk but also change the town of Jackson for ever. But why? And for what? The Help is a deeply moving, timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we won?t. Itis about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other ? and that terrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, even love them, better than you . . .

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About the author (2010)

Kathryn Stockett was born in 1969 in Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing. She soon got a job in magazine marketing and publishing in New York City. She became famous in 2009 with her debut novel, The Help. Her book tells the story of African-American Maids working in white households in Jackson Mississippi during the 1960's. It sold over ten million copies and spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List.

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