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A Novel
by Kelly Mustian
Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder—perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and If the Creek Don't Rise.
Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.
Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she's holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.
As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.
Paperback Original
BookBrowsers ask Kelly Mustian
I worked on The Girls in the Stilt House for about five years and restructured it a couple of times. Getting a rough first draft down from beginning to end is agonizing work for me, although I know writers who most enjoy that stage. The magic, for me, is in revising, honing the story and the pros...
-Kelly_M
What are you reading this week? (6/12/2025)
Finishing Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid for review, then I'm not sure. I've got a few days before I need to start the next discussion book - Broken Country - so I may try to squeeze in something else before I start that. Jury's out! In audiobook format, I'm listening to Kelly Mustian's The Gi...
-kim.kovacs
Evie has a condition called synesthesia where she sees and feels things in terms of color. Did this play an important part someplace in the story?
I enjoyed it too! Did you read the author's first one, Girls in Stilt Houses? It was good as well.
-Holly_K
To what audience would you recommend The River Knows Your Name? Is there another book or author you feel has a similar theme or style?
I think this book would promote lively discussion for any reading group. I will certainly recommend it to my Book Club. We like books where "good" people face obstacles and overcome circumstances that are traumatic. We like books where forgiveness is possible. Kelly Mustian's book The Girls in th...
-Ann_H
Overall, what did you think of The River Knows Your Name? (no spoilers, please!)
I loved this book from the first chapter. In fact, even before I finished it I went out and bought The Girls in the Stilt House. I also shared my thoughts with our local library Book Brunch group.
-Melinda_J
"Remarkable debut.... [a] nearly flawless tale of loss, perseverance and redemption." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Classic Southern reading." - Library Journal
"In a world too cruel to make a place for them, Matilda and Ada become an army of two, fighting a war for their own refuge. This is a gripping novel about friendship, danger, isolation, and the vivid, dripping, moving landscape of a Mississippi swamp. If you loved Where the Crawdads Sing, you'll love The Girls in the Stilt House." - Nina de Gramont, author of The Last September
"In prose that is stunning and assured, Kelly Mustian forges a powerful story of two young women, thrust together after unspeakable loss and devastation, and their courageous struggle to emerge from their darkest hours." - Jessica Keener, author of Strangers in Budapest, an Indie Next pick and Entertainment Weekly "best new book"
"An astonishingly assured debut, The Girls in the Stilt House draws you in, holds you spellbound, and will move you to tears. With emotional impact and gut-wrenching power, this unforgettable novel is the best book I've read in a very long time, and I'm sure I won't be the only one who thinks so. A triumph!" - Elizabeth Letts, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Finding Dorothy
"The Girls in the Stilt House is a brilliantly researched, atmospheric page-turner. But best of all, it's populated with characters you really care about. I devoured it in a single weekend, yet the novel's haunting spell remained with me long after." - Kate Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The Radium Girls and the upcoming The Woman They Could Not Silence
"The two young women at the heart of this rich debut come of age under the hardest of circumstances, and Kelly Mustian has given us their world entire. We ache for their sorrows, we cheer for their victories, and we recognize both ourselves and our nation in their troubles and their hopes." - Jon Clinch, author of Marley and Finn
"Kelly Mustian's The Girls in the Stilt House is a triumph, a heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting debut that's as rich and lush as the Natchez Trace where the story takes place. Mustian's lyrical prose combined with her deep insight into the resiliency of the human spirit make this novel shine. You know a book is good when you wish you'd written it!" - Karen Dionne, international bestselling author of The Marsh King's Daughter
This information about The Girls in the Stilt House was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kelly Mustian grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines, and she is a past recipient of a Blumenthal Writers Award and a Regional Artist Grant from the North Carolina Arts and Science Council. She currently lives near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. The Girls in the Stilt House is her debut novel.
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