Sweet Vidalia

For readers of Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler, a life-affirming novel about marriage, friendship and the powerful dignity of a woman forced to rebuild her life - unexpectedly and alone - in 1960s Texas.

She made herself see Robert with the kids, telling stories of crafty, talking rabbits and determined turtles, his face bright with meanings, with silliness. Made herself see the two of them laughing together in bed, they had done that. That was true. Through the years, they'd had happiness and closeness. They had.

As Eliza sits at her husband's funeral, still stunned by the suddenness of his death, she discovers a lie that turns her life upside down. Almost overwhelmed by the dawning understanding that she has known nothing true about her life, Eliza can't see a way forward at first. How should she come to terms with all that has been a lie? How can she live with herself?

But Eliza has a core of resourceful steel that does not let her down and an innate emotional generosity that she clings to, faced with an almost overwhelming sense of bitterness. Signing up to business classes so she can make a living, she moves into a hotel, The Sweet Vidalia, filled with people facing their own challenges.

As she gathers new friends and new possibilities open up before her, Eliza finds it isn't so simple to leave the past behind....

Oh how I loved Sweet Vidalia! In this pitch-perfect novel, Lisa Sandlin gifts readers with a most unlikely but unforgettable heroine in Eliza Kratke, a woman forced to carve a path forward while so delightfully discovering herself along the way. With precise, evocative prose and a cast of endearing characters bearing the scars of their pasts, Sandlin tells a wonderfully wise and compassionate story of the extraordinary courage it takes to live a seemingly ordinary life. A true gem that will remain in readers' hearts long after the final page Shelley Read, internationally bestselling author of Go As A River
Lisa Sandlin has written a touching, and often untold, story of the unexpected trials faced by women later in life who were taught to trust in the loyalty of their men. A quiet, yet beautiful read Mary Lynn Bracht, author of White Chrysanthemum
Poignant and uplifting, Sweet Vidalia is a beautifully written tribute to the courage of a woman wounded by life who, through steadfast determination, reclaims her self-esteem, and the joy of living Kathleen Kent, bestselling author of Black Wolf and The Heretic’s Daughter
With her keen understanding of the human heart and a gift for laying it bare on the page, Lisa Sandlin has given us a beautiful story of what it takes to re-build a ruined life from the ground up. Readers will grieve with Eliza Kratke at the shocking upheaval in her marriage. They'll rejoice at her spirit. When they finish the book, they'll miss her. I certainly did Elizabeth Crook, author of The Madstone
The odyssey of a woman forced to rebuild her entire world... Eliza's warmhearted matter-of-factness is her salvation, and her decision to care less about trust and more about humane survival and keeping her spirit uncorroded is doubly refreshing. Sandlin has written a page-turner of an unapologetically female adventure Katherine Vaz, author of Above the Salt
Lisa Sandlin's Sweet Vidalia does what the very best books do. Eliza Kratke shows us with her courageous, steady enterprise how to brave life's blows and start again, and again, every day. She is a heroine of the first order and I wish she lived next door Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of The Summer We Started Over

Lisa Sandlin's 2015 debut crime novel, The Do-Right won The Shamus Best First Private Eye Novel Award and the Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Fiction. The second book in the series The Bird Boys was chosen by Marilyn Stasio as One of the Ten Best Crime Novels of the Year. Lisa's awards include an National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Jesse Jones award from the Texas Institute of Letters for Best Book of Fiction, a Dobie Paisano Fellowship, Violet Crown Award, Pushcart Prize, New Mexico Book Award, and the Christopher Hewitt Award for Fiction from A&U, America's AIDS magazine. She is an emeritus professor from The Writer's Workshop, University of Nebraska Omaha and she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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