A Letter to My Daughter
By George Bishop
Letter to My Daughter
By George Bishop
George Bishop makes his literary debut with Letter to My Daughter, A Ballantine Books Hardcover on sale now at Faulkner House Books and elsewhere. As the novel opens, a guilt-ridden mother sets out writing a letter to her fifteen year old daughter, who has disappeared. She writes, “Think of this letter as my birthday present to you. Something which my mother never told me, but which I’ll endeavor now with all my heart to tell you: the truth about how a girl grows up. The truth about life.” As she looks back on her own mother, first loves, and family secrets, we are reminded that before every woman becomes a mother, she was once just a daughter, too.
In the novel, 15-year-old Elizabeth flees her Baton Rouge home on the eve of her 15th birthday. Her mother Laura blames herself, and seeks reconciliation by setting down in a letter “everything I’ve always meant to tell you but never have.” In recounting her own troubled adolescence in rural Louisiana during the Vietnam War, she reveals her parents’ cruel decision to send her away to a Catholic boarding school, how her forbidden love affair with a boy in Vietnam ended in tragedy, and finally, the meaning of an enigmatic tattoo she still wears below her right hip. By turns heartbreaking and uplifting, Bishop seamlessly conveys the delicate yet powerful bond that exists between a mother and daughter and, in doing so, brilliantly captures the universal themes of family, love, betrayal, and the anguish of adolescence.
Exploring the lessons we learn when we come of age, Letter to My Daughter heralds the arrival of George Bishop as a stunning new voice in contemporary fiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
George Bishop holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. After eight years of acting in commercials, stage plays, and guest starring roles in TV sitcoms, he traveled overseas and spent most of the last decade living and teaching in Slovakia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, India, and Japan. His stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Oxford American, The Third Coast, Press, and American Writing. He now lives in New Orleans. Visit his website at www.georgebishopjr.com.
Praise for Letter to My Daughter
Letter to My Daughter is a first novel of immense power. It makes George Bishop a novelist to keep your eye on. As a father of five daughters, reading the book made me wish I’d written a letter to my own girls, describing my own failures and dilemmas as an American teenager.
—Pat Conroy, New York Times bestselling author of South of Broad, The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, and Wide is the River
—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia and Very Valentine
Before you sit down to read this book, put aside a few hours. Or else, you'll miss some appointments. You will be pulled into every paragraph of Letter to My Daughter, especially if you've ever been a parent or a teenager.
—Clyde Edgerton, author of The Bible Salesman
In George Bishop’s spare and powerful Letter to My Daughter, a mother confesses with startling honesty a life of passion and loss and survival. Meant as an apology to her runaway child, it is both heartbreaking and heart healing.
—John Biguenet, author of Oyster and The Torturer’s Apprentice
George Bishop has brilliantly conceived an unforgettable story about the angst of adolescence, the complexities of family relationships, and the depth of a mother’s love for her daughter. Written with stunning clarity and compassion, Letter to My Daughter fills the heart.
—Bev Marshall, author of Walking Through Shadows and Right as Rain
Letter to my Daughter encompasses all the love and hope and fear of being both a parent and a child. Bishop's story, this letter from a mother, will break your heart even as it reminds you of the resiliency of love.
—Judy Merrill Larsen, author of All the Numbers
The first thought you have when you read George Bishop's novel, Letter to My Daughter, is; how did a man manage to nail the relationship between a mother and a daughter so flawlessly? But that's not the only magic Mr. Bishop pulls off. He's also one of those rare writers who can write about the heart --and heartbreak-- without sugarcoating, yet you feel uplifted at the end. In his skillful hands, reality is a cause for hope, first love is a first step on life's journey, and youthful emotions are to be forever cherished. If you have a mom or a daughter -- or a son or a dad -- share this great read with them.
—Louise Shaffer, author of Serendipity
George Bishop is very good at doing a difficult thing. He dares to write about the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship. He is alert to the feeling of helpless love in a mother, and the stumbling way she tries to speak to her absent daughter. The story, told through a letter, is compelling and heartfelt.”
—Elizabeth Cox, author of Slow Moon
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