Synopses & Reviews
Though warned by her father to steer clear of Amos Garland -- the reclusive veteran who lives in two abandoned buses atop Cade's Hill -- young Lawanda Ingle finds herself standing in his garden. By ignoring her father's words, Lawanda discovers a friend to whom she can open her heart and share her dreams. But Garland is still in thrall to personal demons: his part in the horror of the Second World War and the resulting craziness that drove his family away. Into this charged world comes Lawanda, too young to he afraid, who unwittingly awakens the old man's pain and longing. Amid his busload of books and maps, Garland and Lawanda forge a friendship that threatens them both when his journal is confiscated and his words are twisted by a zealous man's fantasies and a righteous father's wrath.
Synopsis
In this remarkable novel, George Ella Lyon creates characters as rich and vibrant as the Kentucky landscape they call home, touching that secret place in all of us where we wait for love's transforming power...
Synopsis
With a Hammer for My Heart is the story of Lawanda, a precocious, poverty-stricken fifteen-year-old girl from Cardin, Kentucky, who dreams of attending college. When Lawanda's friendship with an alcoholic World War II veteran named Garland is misinterpreted by their fellow townspeople, a tragedy calls her future into question.
Synopsis
"A rich tale of healing, redemption, and social responsibility." -- Publishers Weekly "A compelling, skillfully told story. Lyon's finest achievement." -- Lexington Herald-Leader "Lyon gives readers a story rich in precise, gorgeous language that glows like a sword on the forge and cuts as deep. Tragedies old and new weave a tiny Kentucky town into the center of the universe." -- Booklist (starred review) "Lyon consistently reveals in her work an ability to render the peculiarities of the people and the places she knows best, while at the same time exploring concerns that lend her stories and poems universal appeal. The same is true of With a Hammer for My Heart, a powerful first novel that catapults Lyon into the ranks of other well-respected contemporary novelists." -- Southern Register