Addie Pray is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Joe David Brown

Joe David Brown

Joe David Brown was an American novelist and journalist from Birmingham, Alabama. He drew memorably from his own life to compose his fiction: his grandfather's role as a minister, his own knowledge of confidence games from his work as a reporter, his World War II experiences, and his residence on...

. It was the basis for the movie Paper Moon

Paper Moon (film)

Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...

(1973) directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...

. The novel was re-printed in 2002 as a paperback with the title Paper Moon: A Novel.

The novel is narrated by Addie, an orphaned girl, who travels with confidence man "Long Boy" Moses Pray in the early 1930s, during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Their travels are mainly in the State of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, but they do go elsewhere on occasion.

Addie states at the beginning of the novel that Long Boy may or may not be her father; she says that her late mother was the "wildest" girl in her town, and that Long Boy is one of her three possible fathers. The book features three scams not depicted in the movie, including bilking cotton dealers, investors in a worthless mine, and a wealthy lawyer in New Orleans.

Editions

• Addie Pray, Simon & Schuster, 1971. ISBN 978-0-671-20962-9
• Paper Moon: A Novel, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002. ISBN 978-1-56858-230-6