Jim Barber
A family you won’t forget …Infused with warmth, heart and hope … Glazed with the sorrow of a devastating truth. On a cold December day in 1960, Joe Baker finishes plowing the largest field on his family’s farm in South Georgia and acknowledges the well of restlessness running deep inside him. Joe appreciates the good life provided by his parents, but his heart yearns for something else. So begins Plowed Fields, setting the stage for a conflict that will nag at Joe for the next decade as he tries to reconcile his own desire and ambition with loyalty and responsibility to his family. Originally published in its full-length version, Plowed Fields is also available in a trilogy edition. Book One begins with “The White Christmas,” introducing Joe and his family, along with a host of friends and acquaintances who will shape their fates during the next decade. The Baker family is anchored by patriarch Sam, whose pirate’s appearance disguises a gentle giant of goodness, and his son, Matt, who is capable of strength and force when necessary but unafraid of tenderness when the moment requires a softer touch. Plowed Fields also features Lucas Bartholomew, a black farm worker, and Bobby Taylor, the spitting image of a civil rights-minded Yankees’ vision of a racist. Tensions erupt early between the Bakers and Taylors, sparked by a senseless act and fueled by Bobby’s campaigns for the sheriff’s job against Matt’s best friend, the aristocratic and troubled Paul Berrien. In “The Train,” Joe confronts racial prejudice in his school and community and feels the strain of taking an unpopular stand. A girl claims his heart and a heroic deed plants a seed of hate that will fester as the decade unfolds. Beautifully written, slow-burning and haunting, Plowed Fields is a mesmerizing saga of people coming together and falling apart, relying on God and losing faith, and pushing forward and fighting back in times of crisis. 3
