Sharfeddin

Sweetwater Burning Release

Heather — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:04:20 +0000

SWEETWATER BURNING (Bantam 2010) goes on sale. Download the press release: Sweetwater Burning Press Release

Radio Interview with Adrenaline Radio

Heather — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:20:44 +0000

Megan Willingham interviews Heather about SWEETWATER BURNING

New York Book Festival

Heather — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:33:40 +0000

Author Awards Reception – Algonquin Hotel

Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest

Heather — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:40:23 +0000

Sunday, June 13 at 1:30 pm, Dearborne Station

Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest

Sweetwater Burning

Sam — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:07:33 +0000

Chas McPherson and his father are shepherds–one of beasts, the other of souls. The hard-crusted, hard-drinking younger McPherson, a misunderstood loner, raises a breed of sheep known as Blackbellies. The father, dying of Parkinson’s, is tendd by a newly hired nurse with a past, Mattie Holden. The father had been a fire-and-brimstone pator whose uncanny ability to detect and then reveal the townspeople’s sins kept them in dread of him. When the home of Sweetwater’s lone Muslim family is burned to the ground, those past fears and grudges contribute to the town turning against the younger McPherson as the suspected arsonist.

Sheriff Kip Edelson methodicaly and conscientiously investigates the arson accusation, and a subsequent one of murder. At the McPherson ranch, Mattie is haunted by a sense that the incapacitated, now-mute father can see into the secrets of her own past. She and Chas draw closer together as mutual emotional needs slowly replace inital antipathy. Surprising developments in town and at the ranch gradually bring them to a reckoning with the once-fierce father and to a journey to forgivness.

Windless Summer

Sam — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:20:56 +0000

In the town of Rocket, Washington–a summer playground for windsurfers and tourists–a windless summer ignites fear as businesses and residents move away. Rocket’s motel, run by a lonely widower named Tom Jemmet, is hard hit. And Tom has demons of his own: memories of a beautiful wife that still haunt him, and a troubled young daughter whose retreat into a silent world confounds her father and sparks whispers in town.

Swirling around Tom are lives much like his own, townspeople yearning for wind but also for hope, even love. Charlene, a mail clerk, helps care for Tom’s daughter while a secret gnaws at her heart. Lauren, the town vet, has fallen for Tom, who barely notices. And newspaper editor Hap is hatching a foolish plan to save his town.

That’s when a miracle–or something like it–strikes Tom’s rundown motel. Guests who stay in Room 6 begin experiencing sudden acts of fate, both terrible and great. But while tourists descend on Rocket and the town shows new signs of life, the truth about Tom’s motel and teh death of his ife–as well as the secret hopes and fears of everyone around him–are exposed in ways that are both surprising and transforming.

Sweetwater Burning

Reviews

Sam — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:20:15 +0000

Windless Summer is honored at the 2010 New York Book Festival.

Sweetwater Burning (hardcover: Blackbelly) is honored at the 2010 San Francisco Book Festival.

“Sharfeddin has captured the family-like entanglements in a small community—by showing us what happens when those relationships begin to come apart.”

– Philadelphia Inquirer

“A good old-fashioned cowboy tale that’s as gritty as they come… A nice piece of emotional storytelling.”

– Chicago Tribune

“An accomplished western… Authentic description of the stark, isolated landscapes, rustic conditions, and the bitter winter form a backdrop to the characters’ turmoil, suggesting a timelessness that is only occasionally broken with touches of modernity…. Impressive.”

– Publishers Weekly

Home

Sam — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:47:56 +0000

Sweetwater Burning is a suspenseful crime story centering on an act of bigotry against the lone Muslim family in a remote Idaho town. It is at the same time a sensitive novel of family dynamics—of a complex father-son relationship and of the evolving personal attractions and repulsions between the crusty rancher unjustly accused of the hate crime and the nurse who comes to care for his father. And third, it is a novel of the contemporary West whose settings and characters are authentically drawn.

Reviews

“Sharfeddin’s…eye for detail…and her unsentimental compassion for her characters…will entrance readers. Stark terrain beautifully rendered.” — Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2005 (starred)

“Superbly crafted….A story about the miracle of love blossoming in unlikely places. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal, September 1, 2005 (starred)