Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule

Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule by Lou Liberty


In this stirring tale of risk and redemption, award-winning author Lou Liberty reveals family secrets -- Secrets too painful to unearth. But unless someone digs, history has a way of repeating itself. 


A Depression Era kid, Paul grows up learning that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but you must always be daring. As he survives a troubled childhood and WWII, Paul scrambles from one hustle to the next and discovers that love is the ultimate gamble. In creating a new family in Texas, he finds himself deeply enmeshed in a more treacherous story than the one from which he came. At the end of a long life, can Paul make amends for generations of wounding?


Readers’ praise for Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule



Incredible! The first chapter grabs you and you just can't turn the pages fast enough. The last chapter is as powerful as the first and poetic, astonishingly poignant. Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule is a wild, wonderful, satisfying read.

                                               -- Lori K., New Mexico


This book is a perennial, a new classic! Paul is an unforgettable character whose life story is a layered, challenging tapestry of events, great loss and surprising redemption. His story is an unexpected love story. Pappy Shell And The Jenny Mule is a treat!

-- Patience B., NYC


Wow! What an interesting slice of Americana. What a moving, rich, psychologically insightful portrayal of human nature. What a deceptively simple exposé of just how we dream, work for our dreams, lose them, lose hope (without knowing it), lose ourselves because of this, and then keep hanging on dysfunctionally or not. I loved the complexity of Paul’s personality, his obvious free-ranging intelligence. I love that the listener is revealed (I just got chills again writing about it . . .). I love that so many aspects of being human can be tied into the relationship with a beloved mule.

-- John F., Texas