The Sound of Gravel

The riveting, deeply-affecting true story of one girl's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon Doomsday cult.

The Sound of Gravel is Ruth Wariner's unforgettable story of growing up in a polygamist Mormon doomsday community. The thirty-ninth of her father's forty-one children, Ruth Wariner was raised on a farm in Northern Mexico, where polygamy could be practiced without fear of legal persecution. There, Ruth's family lives in a home without indoor plumbing or electricity and attends a church where preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world. After Ruth's father--the man who had been the founding prophet of the community--is brutally murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.
In need of government assistance and supplemental income, Ruth and her siblings are carted back and forth between Mexico and the United States, where her mother collects welfare and her step-father works a variety of odd jobs. Ruth comes to love the time she spends in the United States, realizing that perhaps the belief system into which she was born is not the right one for her. As she enters her teen years, Ruth becomes a victim of abuse in a community in which opposition toward men is tantamount to arguing with God. Finally, and only after devastating tragedy, she finds an opportunity to escape.
Recounted from the innocent and hopeful perspective of a child, The Sound of Gravel is the remarkable true story of a girl fighting to define a place for herself within a community of misguided believers. This is an intimate, gripping tale of triumph, courage, resilience, and love.

RUTH WARINER lives in Portland, Oregon. After Wariner left Colonia LeBaron, the polygamist Mormon colony where she grew up, she moved to California, where she raised her three youngest sisters. After earning her GED, she put herself through college and graduate school, eventually becoming a high school Spanish teacher. She remains close to her siblings and is happily married.The Sound of Gravel is her first book.