EVENSONG

By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life's tragedies and joys, her desires, motivations, and choices, coming to view herself and the past with compassion, if not entirely with forgiveness. EVENSONG is a beautifully written , compelling story of marriage, family and one woman's search for identity.

In 1939, Maggie Doud married Garfield Maguire. Now, fifty years on, she's Margaret Maguire: a widow and a grandmother, home from the hospital in time for Christmas, and no longer able to ignore the consequences of having married an imperious and arrogant man. Her daughters are strangers to each other, past hope of reconciling. Margaret's granddaughter can be the one to break the cycle, but she can't do it alone. It's time to take stock, to examine the past, and even time for Margaret to call herself to account. Was Garfield, a bully posing as a good man, the failed parent, or was it Margaret who failed, by marrying him in the first place?

KATE SOUTHWOOD is the author of the novel FALLING TO EARTH. She received an M.A. in French Medieval Art from the University of Illinois, and an M.F.A. in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts Program for Poets and Writers. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and The Huffington Post, among others.