Set in the poverty-ridden backwoods of south Georgia, this novel tells the story of Cliffie Flowers, a courageous seventeen-year-old girl who becomes pregnant. Cliffie fears the rage and disappointment of her defeated father, but secretly hopes that her pregnancy might represent an escape from the oppressive, tight-knit community in which she is trapped.

Those hopes are shattered when violence erupts and Cliffie is accused of murders she did not commit. In order to keep hidden the shameful secrets of her father's past, she is forced to hide her own innocence and stand by the necessary lies that will torment her. Despite the poverty and despair of her life, Cliffie refuses to succumb to the overwhelming bleakness as she faces her fate with a courage and hope that make her one of the most remarkable heroines in recent fiction.

Written in a distinctive voice that captures the tone and texture of rural Georgia and full of remarkably human characters, Necessary Lies marks the emergence of an important new voice in Southern literature.