St. Andrew’s Book Group

The book, first published in 1972, is a somewhat fictionalized memoir based on Conroy’s experience as a teacher on an island off the South Carolina coast.  It has been the basis for a theatrical film and a TV movie.  It focuses on Conroy’s efforts to build a relationship with island children who are descended from slaves and who have had little contact with the broader world.  In the process, it reveals much about the impact of racism and poverty in the rural South during the 1960s as the students prepare to face an uncertain future.