One Good Mama Bone

"McClain brings forth a story that aches and pulses."—IN Magazine

"McClain's first novel resists predictability and instead weaves together questions about poverty, class, violence, and religion. . . . A thought-provoking story about families and the animals who sustain them."—Kirkus Reviews

"The 1950s Deep South comes alive in this folkloric tale of love, sacrifice, and redemption."—Washington Independent Review of Books

"The plot and McClain's deeply developed characters are matched by her language. It is both realistic and poetic, simple and eloquent at once, and it will draw you in quickly and completely."—Sumter Item

"First-time novelist McClain draws on her family's history in the rural South to create a cast of deeply relatable characters, both human and animal, who readers will find themselves rooting for until the very last page."—Booklist (starred review)

"It's a novel with a heart-breaking beginning whose conclusion is morally and emotionally satisfying."—Southern Literary Review

"Beautiful book? You bet, and one you'll love."—Lake Country Now

"Among other kudos, McClain's novel was named a 2017 Great Group Reads selection by the Women's National Book Association, and long listed for The Crook's Corner Book Prize Foundation for the best debut novel set in the American South."—lcweekly.com

"Beautifully written and so descriptive of life in the rural South."—Girl Who Reads

"Bren McClain's brilliant and ravishingly moving novel speaks eloquently for all of us who find our deepest humanity intimately connected with all the sentient creatures around us. Humane and universal, One Good Mama Bone is an instant classic."—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning short-story collection, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"One Good Mama Bone is everything that Bren [McClain] is—smart, confident, unflinchingly honest, witty, wise, and possessing a reassuring wisdom and kindness that carries the reader from the story's heartbreaking beginnings to a morally and emotionally satisfying conclusion. McClain's debut novel is a tour de force! . . . This is a novel that just might break your heart, and it might well heal it too, but with both acts Bren McClain will remind you of why each of us is entrusted with a heart in the first place."—Mary Alice Monroe, from the foreword

"Emotional bonds between humans and animals have long been written about, but never has the bond between a woman and a mother cow been placed front and center. It's about time. The world is ready for this true portrait of a mother cow's compassion and the lessons she has to teach us all. This is an important story whose time has come."—Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary

"Bren McClain writes of elemental things with grace, wisdom, and power. One Good Mama Bone speaks with a quiet authority that comes through on every page."—Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

"One Good Mama Bone brilliantly, yet softly, addresses the deep connection between us and the animals in our world Animal lovers, southern fiction fans, and those who simply like a well-told story will devour One Good Mama Bone just as they would the best home-made biscuits and gravy."—Hungry for Good Books blog

"Brenda McClain's engrossing first novel... is peopled with complex, flawed characters who face dreadful dilemmas."—Independent Mail

2017 Pulpwood Queens' Book of the Year
2019 Patricia Winn Prize for Southern Literature
2017 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
2021 Prix Maya Award for Best Animal Novel