Janice Daugharty

"It is 1956 and Sister is only thirteen years old, but she is a mother to her two younger twin brothers and her toddler sister. Her mother, Marnie, has had a string of boyfriends, and her latest is more interested in building up business at his new cafe than he is in raising three children that are not his own. Marnie is involved in the cafe as well - but Sister is not exactly sure how. All she knows is that Marnie isn't around very much."--BOOK JACKET. "Deciding that she will not follow in Marnie's footsteps, Sister begins to take charge of her life, as best she can, by minding her manners, and by befriending her kindly next-door neighbor, Willa, who seems to Sister to be a fine example of how a mother should be. But then Ray Williams, a respected and powerful man in town, begins to notice the blossoming Sister, and when he realizes that she has no adult supervision, he sets his sights on her. Willa steps in to intervene, and Sister thinks she may have found salvation, but in Like a Sister, all is never what it seems."--BOOK JACKET.

From a new literary star and acclaimed author of Pawpaw Patch, Necessary Lies and Dark of the Moon comes the haunting and poignant novel of a family in crisis, set in the backwoods of Georgia.Meet the Scurvy family, an impoverished clan who are the scourge of their small white-trash community. Mother has died in childbirth, leaving behind her newborn and four uneducated children. Father, a toothless and slothful man, cannot muster the money for her funeral. Their 15-year-old daughter, the only girl among three brothers, realizes that the newborn infant is now hers to raise; something that will finally put meaning into her life. And the brothers find themselves enlisted by the town's corrupt bigwig to run moonshine -- a risky venture, but the only way they'll be able to earn the money to bury their mother.Written in a powerful voice unique to Daugharty, Earl in the Yellow Shirt is narrated in alternating chapters by each of the main characters, their voices corning to the story with different nuances of hope and despair. It is a compelling work that solidifies Daugharty's versatile storytelling talents.

At forty, Chanell Foster is proud and popular in her hometown of Cornerville, Georgia. Her beauty shop is more than her business - it is the town's social hub - and one's status in Cornerville is ensured by a standing weekly appointment in Chanell's book. But life in a small southern town can change without warning. For Chanell, it begins when several of her regular customers fail to appear for their appointments one morning. By day's end her is salon is completely empty, as if the plague itself had been discovered there. Chanell doesn't understand the reason, but she sees a small-town social lynching when she sees one. Her best and truest friend, Bell, assures her that nothing is wrong, yet two of her closest friends since childhood, Joy Beth and Linda Gay, won't even look her in the eye. It is only after overhearing a hushed conversation that Chanell realizes the ugly truth: she is the focus of a hateful, racist rumor that has spread like wildfire through her small town. Where Chanell was once beloved, she is now outcast across racial barriers erected by her own friends and townspeople. . On the verge of losing her business, Chanell embraces the role of the anomaly in which the town has cast her. By giving Cornerville a dose of its own medicine, Chanell forces the town to turn its face to the mirror of hatred, leading to wonderfully poignant, ironic, and triumphant conclusion.

A brilliant first collection of short stories, Going Through the Change deals with the often turbulent lives of the people who inhabit rural South Georgia. Among them are The Count, who torches the local schoolhouse after his daughters are expelled for being "racially impure"; Lyneice, a recently widowed woman who gets into a fight at the local singles bar; and Kurl, a desperate war veteran who kidnaps a mildly retarded young hitchhiker. Characterized by a fresh and vivid use of language, unfailing humor, and boundless empathy, these stories will help establish Janice Daugharty as one of our outstanding writers of short fiction.

Kim and Shelton are desparate to find their missing loved ones. Then gradually each comes to a secret but mutual understanding of the global mystery of the vanished millions. It's a secret that not only binds but separates them, until loneliness, danger and love force them to start over. They name their son Adam.

FROM AN IRELAND SEETHING WITH REBELLION TO THE GILDED CAGE OF LONDON SOCIETY Rescued from the streets of Dublin, Caitlyn O'Malley found herself under the protection of Connor d'Arcy, Earl of Iveagh by day, Ireland's boldest highwayman by night...from the brooding ruins of Donoughmore Castle, the rugged nobleman rode out to prey on the hated English. Soon Caitlyn was riding with him - tormented by her growing passion for the man who made her a woman yet thought of her as a child...until that night of disaster when Caitlyn was forced to betray Connor in order to save him. Though in his rage and hurt, he spurned her she knew they could not live apart - and vowed to rekindle the flames of their undeniable love...

Caring for her family on their mid-20th-century tobacco farm after the loss of her parents, 15-year-old Ivy connects with Grace County social worker Jane, who strains her personal and professional relationships with her advocacy of Ivy's family, whose dark secrets test Jane's resolve against racial tensions and state-mandated sterilizations.

A good-hearted boy. A segregated town. A stolen fortune. A coming-of-age story full of hope and forgiveness. When twelve-year-old Knot Crews, an African American boy growing up in the segregated south Georgia town of Statenville, discovers a bag of bank-robbed cash in an alley, he is nearly overcome with happiness and terror. All that money-a hundred thousand dollars-could be the ticket to everything he's ever wanted, but he knows he can't spend it, not only because his conscience won't let him, but for fear of being caught. He decides to do what he can for his needy neighbors, both black and white, and begins mailing them hundredƯdollar bills anonymously, but it irks Knot daily to discover that most of them squander it and don't use the money as he had intended, and that the money doesn't change their lives for the better. It turns out that the weight of Knot's world can't be lifted by cold hard cash alone. Set during the turbulent 1960's, The Little Known is a coming-of-age story full of hope and forgiveness.

Roper is illiterate. He is a poor, hard-working black man in the unforgiving heart of south Georgia, striving each day to put distance between his new life and his probation for a petty crime one year earlier. His routine is his savior: At sunrise he mounts the tractor belonging to Math Taylor, a prominent white landowner, and grooms the vast grounds of the Taylor home - until one morning, when Roper's routine goes terribly wrong. While mowing the tall grass at the back end of the property, he comes across the body of his boss's wife, dead of a heart attack. In a moment of panic, terrified that he'll be blamed for her death and sent back to jail, Roper hides her body where it will not be found. With the ensuing days and weeks comes a painstaking, and fruitless, search for the missing woman. The police want to interview Roper, to ask him if he happened to see Lora Taylor before her mysterious disappearance. After all, wasn't he running the tractor around the time she vanished? Now Roper is not sure he did the right thing. He should have called for help. And there is no way he can come forward at this point. As the investigation begins and the tragedy hits the evening news, Roper is nearly crippled with self-induced fear and paranoia.