The Stone Necklace: A Novel

by Carla Damron, Patti Callahan Henry (Foreword by)

Overview

A car crash takes one life and changes the destiny of four others in this “deftly written, moving novel about picking up the pieces after great loss” (Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation).

Winner of the 2017 STAR AWARD from the Women’s Fiction Writers Association

The Stone Necklace braids together the stories of a grieving widow, a struggling nurse, a young mother, and a troubled homeless man, reminding us of the empowering and surprising ways our lives touch one another.

Lena Hastings survived breast cancer and marital infidelity but now faces an uncertain future without the support of the one person she has always counted on. Intensive care nurse Sandy Albright, newly released from drug rehab, confronts temptations from her past and false accusations that threaten her career. Tonya Ladson, a mother whose child is injured in a car wreck, must decide if a lawsuit will solve her problems. Joe Booker, a homeless man, loses his gentle benefactor and must either succumb to the evils of his world or find the courage to care for himself.

Weighted down by their respective pasts, the characters must make life-altering choices that reverberate into the fates of the others, ultimately bringing them together in unexpected but healing acts of compassion, forgiveness, and redemption.

Foreword by New York Times bestselling novelist Patti Callahan Henry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611176209
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/26/2016
Series:	Story River Books
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	249,702
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

South Carolinian Carla Damron is a fiction writer, clinical social worker, and author of the Caleb Knowles mystery novels Keeping Silent, Spider Blue, and Death in Zooville in which she explores addiction, homelessness, and other social issues. Her short stories have appeared in Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, and other journals. Named the 2014 South Carolina Social Worker of the Year, Damron holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Queens University and a master's degree in social work from the University of South Carolina.

What People are Saying About This

Patti Callahan Henry

Carla Damron delves deeply and wholly into the souls of her story's characters... each representative in her or his way of our larger, shared experiences, as she shows us with wisdom and grace that there are no absolutes in matters of the heart.

Ashley Warlick

Carla Damron is a wise and sensitive storyteller, attuned to the social fabric that makes up community. In The Stone Necklace, she deftly sees into the hearts of a clutch of different characters, all linked by the same sudden tragedy, all destined to transform each other's' lives. This is a symphonic novel of human noise and nature, and I fully expect it to garner Damron the audience she deserves.

Editorial Reviews

In The Stone Necklace, Carla Damron takes full ownership of Columbia, South Carolina, in a way no writer ever has, capturing the flawed soul of the historic capital city as the weight of its past still hangs albatross-like on the throat of the present. Damron's masterful portrayal of misery giving way to empathy leads us toward a glimmering hope of redemption for families and a community on the cusp of bold rebirth. This a novelist to be read again and again.

Pat Conroy

The Stone Necklace is a novel crafted out of the raw materials of Columbia itself, much like the necklace that comes to serve as a vibrant symbol for the braiding together of diverse, disparate lives in the narrative. Eudora Welty said that one place understood helps us understand all places better. That's what Carla Damron has achieved in her portrait of Columbia: a nuanced understanding of one place that helps us to understand all others—and to understand ourselves.

Ron Rash

A deftly written, moving novel about picking up the pieces after great loss.

Jenny Offill

With every well-chosen word and every beautifully achieved character, Carla Damron proves herself to be an accomplished and hopeful observer of our fragile human condition, one with a deep love of her home city and a reverence for the prospects of its citizens to become better versions of themselves. The Stone Necklace is a celebration of the transformative power of shared experiences and of the connections that bind us as family and friends, as communities and cities, and ultimately as one humanity.

Mary Alice Monroe

"Carla Damron is a wise and sensitive storyteller, attuned to the social fabric that makes up community. In The Stone Necklace, she deftly sees into the hearts of a clutch of different characters, all linked by the same sudden tragedy, all destined to transform each other's' lives. This is a symphonic novel of human noise and nature, and I fully expect it to garner Damron the audience she deserves."--Ashley Warlick, author of The Arrangement


"A deftly written, moving novel about picking up the pieces after great loss."--Jenny Offill


"Carla Damron delves deeply and wholly into the souls of her story's characters . . . each representative in her or his way of our larger, shared experiences, as she shows us with wisdom and grace that there are no absolutes in matters of the heart."--Patti Callahan Henry, from the foreword


"In The Stone Necklace, Carla Damron takes full ownership of Columbia, South Carolina, in a way no writer ever has, capturing the flawed soul of the historic capital city as the weight of its past still hangs albatross-like on the throat of the present. Damron's masterful portrayal of misery giving way to empathy leads us toward a glimmering hope of redemption for families and a community on the cusp of bold rebirth. This a novelist to be read again and again."--Pat Conroy


"With every well-chosen word and every beautifully achieved character, Carla Damron proves herself to be an accomplished and hopeful observer of our fragile human condition, one with a deep love of her home city and a reverence for the prospects of its citizens to become better versions of themselves. The Stone Necklace is a celebration of the transformative power of shared experiences and of the connections that bind us as family and friends, as communities and cities, and ultimately as one humanity."--Mary Alice Monroe


"The Stone Necklace is a novel crafted out of the raw materials of Columbia itself, much like the necklace that comes to serve as a vibrant symbol for the braiding together of diverse, disparate lives in the narrative. Eudora Welty said that one place understood helps us understand all places better. That's what Carla Damron has achieved in her portrait of Columbia: a nuanced understanding of one place that helps us to understand all others--and to understand ourselves."--Ron Rash

From the Publisher