Swan Place - Hardcover

Trobaugh, Augusta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525946888 ISBN 13: 9780525946885

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2002

Synopsis

After a series of family tragedies leaves fourteen-year-old Dove, her younger sister Molly, and their baby brother, Little Ellis, in the care of their seventeen-year-old stepmother, Crystal, Dove and Crystal risk everything to keep the family together, fleeing to a secret refuge called Swan Place, where they meet a group of women who change their lives in profound ways. 17,500 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Augusta Trobaugh is the author of three previous novels, Sophie and the Rising Sun, Resting in the Bosom of the Lamb, and Praise Jerusalem!, a semi-finalist in the 1993 Pirates Alley Faulkner competition.

From Publishers Weekly:

Trobaugh delivers another solid novel of smalltown life below the Mason-Dixon line (after Sophie and the Rising Sun). As in past fictions, Trobaugh's supreme skill is her command of character. Dove, her 14-year-old heroine, is younger than previous Trobaugh women but no less richly drawn. Life in the smalltown South throws a lot of hardships her way. The death of Dove's sweet and fun-loving Mama (who leaves their dry county to go "honky-tonking" with her husband every Saturday night) is followed by a rapid succession of upheavals-from her stepfather's grim car accident to a visit from her deadbeat father to revelations about her real parentage-that threaten to pull the plot toward schmaltzville. Dove refuses to crumble, taking care of herself and her younger siblings-and rescuing the story from melodrama. With touching dignity, she is determined to keep together her evolving family, which includes at various points not only her siblings but a stepmother young enough to be her sister, her stepmother's baby and a devoutly Christian aunt. Dove's perseverance is believable: she voices fears and insecurities while clinging to her pride, learning to accept the support offered by other women and awakening to the fulfillment that reading and writing can bring. Though her prose is a little syrupy in places, Trobaugh manages to make her characters both inspirational and down-to-earth.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0525946888
• ISBN 13: 9780525946885
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 288