The Mountains We Call Home (2024) is a historical novel by New York Times bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson. It is the third book in a series that includes The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and The Book Woman’s Daughter, serving as a conclusion to the story of protagonist Cussy Mary Carter Lovett. In 1953, Cussy, the legendary blue-skinned “Book Woman” of Kentucky, is arrested along with her husband for violating the state’s laws against interracial marriage. Imprisoned in the Kentucky State Reformatory for Women, Cussy is ostracized for her rare genetic condition but finds a new purpose by becoming the prison’s librarian and bringing books to its most forgotten and abused inmates.

The novel continues Richardson’s exploration of Appalachian life and history, focusing on themes of Literacy as Liberation and the brutal consequences of social and legal discrimination. Through Cussy’s struggle for survival, the narrative critiques Institutional Dehumanization and Abuse, exposing the eugenics-era practices of forced sterilization and lobotomies used to control marginalized women in mid-20th-century state institutions. Her story also highlights The Cost of Systemic Prejudice, connecting the persecution she faces as a blue-skinned woman to the broader racial injustices of the era, particularly through her work with a pioneering Black librarian in Louisville. While the novel is a standalone story, it deepens the legacy of the “Book Woman” established in Richardson’s previous bestselling novels, offering a powerful account of resilience and the fight for justice.

This guide refers to the 2026 Sourcebooks Landmark edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of racism, gender discrimination, antigay bias, ableism, physical abuse, pregnancy termination, death by suicide, graphic violence, mental illness, illness, death, and cursing. This guide reproduces the terms “Negro” and “colored” only in quotations; elsewhere it utilizes the term “Black.” The guide also quotes the use of “miscegenation” in the context of racially discriminatory laws in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. “Miscegenation” is generally considered pejorative, as it was often used in the context of racial discrimination and prejudice.

Plot Summary

In March 1953, Cussy Mary Lovett, the legendary blue-skinned Book Woman of Kentucky, and her husband, Jackson, are arrested for violating the state’s “miscegenation” laws, which banned sexual relationships and marriage between people of different races. Before the lawman descends on their home in the Thousandsticks hills, they manage to hide their 16-year-old daughter, Honey. During the violent arrest, a deputy breaks Cussy’s arm, and the couple is separated. 

Jackson is sent to the men’s penitentiary, while Cussy is taken to the Kentucky State Reformatory for Women. Because of her rare genetic condition, methemoglobinemia, Cussy is classified as “colored” and subjected to a month of brutal examinations in the infirmary as doctors try to “cure” her of the blueness they believe has “vexed the Commonwealth” (4). Finally released into the general population in April, Cussy is ostracized by the other inmates, who fear her condition is a curse. She is assigned a cot next to Waldeen Parker, a lifer who runs the prison kitchen and is the only person unafraid of her.

Cussy is saddled with punishing double duties in the kitchen and the laundry, where she struggles with the unfamiliar electric iron, drawing the ire of the supervisor, Estelle. When the prison librarian position opens, Cussy, a former Pack Horse librarian, eagerly applies but is rejected by the stern Warden Sanders in favor of a younger, hostile inmate named Regina Miles. Cussy proves her worth in the kitchen, however, impressing Waldeen by saving money with her resourcefulness. After Regina loses her new post following a fight, Warden Sanders, desperate to raise the prison’s literacy rate to secure funding, offers Cussy the job temporarily. Overjoyed to have a purpose, Cussy begins her work but finds the library deserted, as the inmates are too scared to visit. Undeterred, she starts a mobile library service within the prison, taking books directly to the forgotten women in the Geriatric Ward, the volatile Forensic Ward, and Death Row. She brings comfort to the elderly, calms the disturbed women in Forensics, and teaches a death-row inmate named Sassyann Sipes to write letters to her estranged sons. Her efforts slowly begin to transform the prison’s bleak atmosphere, even earning the grudging respect of guards like Officer Frank Holt.

Her bond with Waldeen deepens when Waldeen reveals her past as a notorious brothel madam and a surprising connection to Cussy’s family: Waldeen helped raise Honey’s biological father, making them kin. Cussy is granted a one-day furlough to help at the men’s prison library, where she hopes to see Jackson, but they miss each other, only catching a heartbreaking glimpse as their respective transport vehicles pass. Soon after, Cussy discovers she is pregnant. Waldeen warns her that the prison will force an abortion and sterilization. When Regina discovers a letter Cussy has written to Jackson about the baby, their ensuing fight lands Cussy in solitary confinement. Warden Sanders confirms the abortion is scheduled. In response, the women Cussy has been serving in the Geriatric and Forensic wards, along with Sassyann, begin a hunger strike to protest her confinement. Under pressure, the warden releases Cussy from solitary and makes her the full-time librarian but remains intent on terminating the pregnancy. A temporary reprieve comes when Warden Sanders grants Cussy an eight-day community furlough to work at the Western Colored Branch Library in Louisville, a strategic move to improve the prison’s public image.

In Louisville, Cussy is welcomed by the head librarian, Mrs. Effie Claxton, and her niece Susan, a nurse. Cussy thrives, and together with Mrs. Claxton, she establishes a “Moonlight School” literacy program for adults that becomes a massive success, even garnering a positive story in the local newspaper. The furlough is cut short when Cussy is struck by a car. At the hospital, the doctor confirms her pregnancy. Learning of the forced abortion that awaits Cussy back at the prison, Susan and Mrs. Claxton devise a daring escape. Susan injects Cussy with methylene blue, a drug that temporarily turns her skin white. They then fake Cussy’s death, with Susan informing the unsuspecting doctor that the patient succumbed to her injuries. Disguised with a wig and posing as a grieving friend named Angeline Moffit, Cussy walks out of the hospital. Mrs. Claxton drives her out of Kentucky, narrowly evading danger in a racist “sundown town,” and delivers her to the safety of her sister Rose’s boardinghouse in Defiance, Ohio.

Months later, Jackson is released from prison and reunites with Cussy in Defiance. In December 1953, she gives birth to a healthy, non-blue son, Elijah Jack. Though they are safe, Jackson grows anxious after a chance encounter with an old acquaintance who knew the sheriff from Troublesome Creek. Fearing discovery, he insists they move to a larger city. They relocate to Detroit, where Jackson works in masonry, and Cussy becomes a library assistant. They live quietly for over a decade, raising Elijah Jack and receiving occasional visits from Honey, but their life is shadowed by a constant, unspoken longing for their Kentucky home. Jackson despises the city, feeling it is a cage, and dreams of a cure for Cussy’s condition that would allow them to return without fear. In 1967, their exile ends when the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Loving v. Virginia strikes down all laws banning interracial marriage. Finally free, Jackson arrives home with the news, declaring, “Mark it now to pack our suitcases; I’m taking my bride home” (313). They return to Troublesome Creek and restore the old Carter homestead. Cussy becomes the head librarian of the local public library, and Honey drives its new bookmobile. The novel closes with Cussy and Jackson on their porch, finally at peace in the mountains they call home.