Against the Ruins

<p>On a December day in 1957 schoolteacher Louise Copeland and her six-year-old daughter Lyra come home to discover that Louise's gentle war-hero husband has suddenly become psychotic and has slashed his wrist with a razor blade.</p><p>From that moment on everything Louise has believed in unravels. In their inner-city Southern neighborhood situated between a cemetery and a madhouse a place of leafy oak trees and ghosts three other people become involved in Louise's crisis: Rosa the scandalous divorcee who entertains men for a living; Uta the mysterious elderly lady who casts spells; and Max the clairvoyant gravedigger.</p><p>In 2004 as Louise is dying her daughter returns home and she and her mother confront how the family was torn asunder in 1957. Louise finally reveals the long-held secret that haunted the family for the next fifty years.</p> <p>This poignant novel is a gripping drama of madness and prejudice in which a mother leaves her daughter ultimately with hope.</p> <p><b>Praise for Linda Lightsey Rice</b></p><p>Against the Ruins contains such gorgeous writing that it nearly takes your breath away with a sense of humor and a fine appreciation of the ridiculous even amid great agony. </p><p>-Natalie Goldberg </p><p>Rice has a fiery incandescent talent. </p><p>-Pat Conroy</p>