Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth child of her father’s forty-two. Raised in a polygamist Mormon Doomsday cult in rural Mexico, she grew up in a home without electricity, surrounded by teachings that promised salvation through suffering and obedience.
After her father, the colony’s founding prophet, is murdered in a power struggle, Ruth’s world becomes even more unstable. Her mother remarries and Ruth is left to navigate poverty, violence, and the growing realization that the life she’s been told to accept may not be the one she wants.
Told through the eyes of a child with unwavering love for her siblings and a fierce will to survive, The Sound of Gravel is a gripping memoir of resilience and self-discovery that proves even in the darkest places, hope can take root.
