Tru and Nelle

Truman, an eccentric Little Lord Fauntleroy aspirant, and Nelle, a feisty girl, strike up an unlikely and unshakable friendship in Depression-era Monroeville, Alabama. Set against the backdrop of the early-twentieth-century South, this fictional account of the childhood bond between Harper Lee and Truman Capote will entertain readers on its own merits, but it also serves as a love letter to two cultural icons.

Truman, an eccentric Little Lord Fauntleroy aspirant, and Nelle, a feisty girl with a boyish haircut who dresses in overalls, strike up an unlikely and unshakable friendship in Depression-era Monroeville, Alabama. Sharing a love of reading and playing pretend, Tru and Nelle escape small-town boredom by telling stories, solving mysteries from their tree-house headquarters, and getting into no small amount of mischief. With Tru's parents seeming to prefer life without him and Nelle receiving constant criticism from her sisters, the duo finds thrilling distraction and guileless acceptance in each other as they endure trouble with bullies and cantankerous cousins and as they encounter the overt racism around them (including run-ins with the Ku Klux Klan). Set against the backdrop of the early-twentieth-century South, this fictional account of the childhood bond between Harper Lee and Truman Capote will entertain readers on its own merits, but it also serves as a love letter to two cultural icons; fans are bound to recognize the seeds of Scout, Dill, and their Maycomb adventures in this story's pages. Neri's homage envisions a deep, rewarding relationship between two children before the literary world knew their names. An author's note provides further biographical information. anastasia m. collins