Turning Toward Eden

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Chasing the truth huh? Sure you're not running from it?</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Hollis might be her only friend a lanky boy Mama calls her beau but Eden Lewis has no time for his hogwash. She's got a mystery to crack. For most fourteen-year-olds California summers in the early 1970s mean sun and surf despite the Cold War chill. Not for Eden. Her AWOL father has sent her life into a tailspin landing her in a shabby beach town stuck caring for her severely disabled brother. Caught in her parents' own cold war Eden ditches Dex at every chance-pier fishing with Hollis playing poker with the grizzled card sharks and caterwaulin' in the church choir laying plain to the Almighty that singing terms ain't the same as speaking terms what with the hand he's dealt her.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Then Raven arrives mid-ninth grade-an elusive Soviet girl rumored to rain black-winged curses over the fearful town. When a rash of petty crimes escalates to bloodshed on the beach suspicion falls on the commie-and then Eden. Desperate to prove herself innocent and Raven guilty she embarks on a reckless game of chase. But for the truth to set her free she must risk Dex's life. Will she go all in no matter the cost?</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>An evocative story laced with mystery </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Turning Toward Eden</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> weaves nostalgia with grit sorrow with humor and despair with faith offering hope to anyone who has sought to belong in a world that rarely plays fair.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>This is storytelling at its most atmospheric-brimming with quirky well-drawn characters razor-sharp prose and the kind of setting you can almost smell. The writing is lyrical grounded and often laugh-out-loud funny-even in the midst of deeply poignant moments. With a cast of endearing misfits and a tone reminiscent of Southern Gothic charm this story lures you in from the very first line and doesn't let go. Cate Touryan has a truly original voice a rare gift for language and a special ability to render a world so vivid you feel baptized in it. - Zena Dell Lowe Screenwriter Story Coach and Founder of The Storyteller's Mission</span></p><p></p>