Southern Fiction Family

Christmas is only weeks away, but no one in Mt. Hope is feeling very festive. Main Street is on the verge of becoming a ghost town. Leona believes resurrecting the annual Christmas parade is the only way to give the dying small town a second chance. But Leona's extravagant plan hits a snag when she realizes there's no one to play Santa . . . unless the scruffy drifter the wind blew in was sent by God.

It's November 1, 1961, in a small town in South Carolina, and nuclear war is coming. Ten-year-old Wilson Porter believes this with every fiber of his being. He prowls his neighborhood for Communists and studies fallout pamphlets and the habits of his father, a scientist at the nuclear plant in town. Meanwhile, his mother Nellie covertly joins an anti-nuclear movement led by angry housewives-and his father, Dean, must decide what to do with the damning secrets he's uncovered at the nuclear plant. When tragedy strikes, the Porter family must learn to confront their fears.

Jess Kirkman’s mother is dying of congestive heart failure, and he has come home to be at her bedside. Charged with getting family affairs in order, he faces the daunting task of sorting out the secret workshop that his father left behind when he died 10 years ago. As he investigates his findings—a map littered with the names of strange women and a strange invention of stovepipe and ceramic—Jess discovers an intriguing side of his father.

Elizabeth Passarella grew up in Memphis in a conservative Republican family with a Christian mom and a Jewish dad. Then she moved to New York, fell in love with the city - and, eventually, her husband - and changed. Sort of. While her politics have tilted to the left, she still puts her faith first - and argues that the two can go hand in hand, for what it’s worth. In this sharp and slyly profound memoir, Elizabeth shares stories and upends stereotypes about Southerners, New Yorkers, and Christians, making a case that we are all flawed humans simply doing our best.

Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker. But he hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father - to take care of his sister. Susannah is not an easy person to keep tabs on....

Through events small and large, thirteen-year-old Harold Stevens grows up during a pivotal summer in the red-dirt backcountry of West Texas. With his friend C.K. Crow, the black field hand who works for Harold’s father, he shoots deer and quail, fishes for catfish, mends fences, grows and learns about marijuana, and tests his emerging manhood against bullies, bulls, and the irresistible charms of his horse-riding older cousin.

A coming-of-age story told from the point of view of a boy growing up in Virginia during the Great Depression. Set in 1933 and 1934, the stories of his family’s struggles to survive are both heartbreaking and inspiring as we watch them go from the heights of peace and serenity to the depths of scarcity and hopelessness. Will they be able to rise together, or will the brutal realities of the rural world they live in separate them and destroy their hopes and dreams?

Leaving the parsonage means Leona will need a new home to call her own. Complicated finances force Leona to work with Saul Levy, but she refuses to allow the uptight lawyer to impede her makeover plans. When a handsome old friend blows into town, Leona is faced with her toughest decision yet. Save the world, or dare to dance with a very unlikely partner?

The gang from the Gull Island Writers Retreat take on the case of a man who is currently doing time for the murder of a woman he swears he did not kill. After speaking to the man, Alex determines that he is most likely telling the truth, so he enlists the help of the gang to prove it. As they work together to sort fact from fiction, they realize there may be a lot more going on than they originally thought.

The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through this collection of short stories: Parents lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Love pangs, a favorite subject of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets, and deaths of distant friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.

During the 1950s, young Jessica—Southern born but “being Yankee raised”—spends Christmas in the small town of Galilee, Georgia, in the company of her Great-Aunt Kate, two other aunts, and a cousin. During this relatively brief visit, Jessica is subjected to full “Southernization” by the entire family.

Beth is a creative, contemplative soul and a loving mom. She is at a crossroads in her marriage and without a clear sense of her gifts and inherent worth. When her spirited Aunt Ro falls while turning to toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Beth embarks on a journey that leads to her ancestral village in Italy, the discovery of a family secret, and a new understanding of herself.

Twelve years ago, Matthias Davidson left his broken home to find a better life, leaving his mama, brother, and sister behind. But a broken man only becomes more broken in a world without love and hope. Now Matthias is in trouble, and he desperately needs help. And he only has one place left to go. Home to Mama. Will Matthias be able to reconcile with his mother? Will he find a way out of his trouble - or will more trouble find him?