Eleven Sundays

by Alonna Shaw

Overview

"Beautifully written [...] A richly descriptive tale of grief and gratitude." -- Kirkus Reviews


In a Northern California seaside town sheltered from time's advances, two women without families, both having suffered deep loss, forge an unlikely bond and become forever connected. This contemporary time capsule takes a Pop-Tart and espresso-fueled twentysomething on an uncharted fork in her road.

Annie's future falls apart until she finds the courage to look inside. Losses plunge her into depression. The office's repetitive and tedious work-a-day life doesn't provide the distraction she needs. So Annie shifts into denial and drives across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge away from her big city problems. In fog-capped Drake's Valley where explorers trekked before her, a mysterious souplady, a green-eyed cat, and three curious boys looking for bones influence her to face up to a changed future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480299375
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	12/16/2012
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Alonna Shaw is a writer and editor living in Northern California. She utilizes her background in theatre, film, television, and appreciation of nature in her work. Storytelling interests include transformative adventures, travel, biography, and social science fiction.



Her hobbies are painting, photography, hiking in nature, reading, and always learning something new. She loves horses, cats, and birds of prey (but not songbirds).



Alonna is married. Her past careers were as a model, then an actress. Life is a journey, each career adding to the next.



alonnashaw.com

@alonnashaw

facebook.com/AlonnaShaw.writer

Editorial Reviews

A repetitive but beautifully written debut novel about a college graduate's self-discovery. When Annie turns 25, her life seems to be in order. Her live-in boyfriend, Max, opens a yoga studio; her career as a Web designer in San Francisco is thriving; and her mother, back in the Midwest, seems to be just fine. But when things in Annie's life start to fall apart--with watershed moments often presented in sparse detail--she finds herself paralyzed. Instead of flying home to be with her family, she watches TV and doses herself with "sleepytime medicine." This choice doesn't quite match the intensity of Annie's grief, though. Equally odd is Annie's decision to keep the bad news a secret from her best friend, Prita, as well as from everyone at work. Instead of turning to friends and colleagues, she finds solace in a B&B in rural Drake's Valley, Calif. Annie and Max initially planned to go to the valley together; now Annie drives to the countryside alone. She finds great comfort in the place, a Victorian house run by a taciturn woman known as "the souplady." As the lady serves her soup, she tells Annie that it "Feeds the body, warms the soul." Between the delectable soup and the refreshing sleep she enjoys, Annie soon establishes a routine of weekly visits to the B&B. Walking in the clear air with her camera in hand, she recalls her love of photography--a convenient time to remember it, since her Web design job isn't going so well. Scenes of Annie at the Web design firm create a number of dull tangents: There are entire play-by-plays of presentations to clients, and the muddled antagonism between her and co-worker Josh is never really explained. The writing is strongest, however, when Annie observes the natural world, as when she sees a jackrabbit's ears, their "transparent pink flesh big as the teardrop heads of badminton racquets." In the valley, three young boys--Ky, JJ and Newt--develop their own fascination with the souplady, whom they call the Bonelady. They spy on her and insist that she makes her broth with human bones. Ultimately, their curiosity and mischievousness create another void in Annie's life. A richly descriptive tale of grief and gratitude.

Kirkus Reviews