The Sound Of Gravel

An account of the author's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon cult describes her childhood on a farm in rural Mexico a... (more)

An account of the author's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon cult describes her childhood on a farm in rural Mexico as one of her father's more than forty welfare-dependent children and her escape in the aftermath of a devastating tragedy. (less)

An account of the author's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon cult describes her childhood on a farm in rural Mexico a... (more)

An account of the author's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon cult describes her childhood on a farm in rural Mexico as one of her father's more than forty welfare-dependent children and her escape in the aftermath of a devastating tragedy. (less)

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

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{u2014}the man who had been the founding prophet of the community{u2014}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... (less)

Ruth was the 39th of her father's 41 children in a polygamist doomsday cult. When she was only a few months old, Ruth's ... (more)

Ruth was the 39th of her father's 41 children in a polygamist doomsday cult. When she was only a few months old, Ruth's father--the man who had been the founding prophet of the community--was brutally murdered by his brother in a bid for church power. Ruth's mother remarried, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant. Ruth's mother gave birth to six more children. Ruth and her siblings were carted back and forth between Mexico and the United States, where her mother collected welfare and her stepfather worked odd jobs. Ruth came to love the time she spent in California and Texas, but as she entered adolescence, her stepfather began seeking her out, forcing her to sit on his lap, touch him, and endure his molestation. Try as she might, Ruth could not persuade her mother or church elders to question her stepfather. Finally, and only after devastating tragedy, Ruth found an opportunity to escape. The remarkable true story of a girl forced to define her own faith. (less)