Deep Down True: A Novel
It�s been more than a year since Dana Stellgarten�s divorce, and things are getting tough. Her 7-year-old, Grady, is struggling with the absence of his father and becoming moody and morose. She discovers that her 12-year-old, Morgan, is bulimic and succumbing to pressure from her popular friends. Her 16-year-old niece, Alder, literally crashes into their lives and begs Dana to take her in for several months. Alder no longer seems to be the happy, well-rounded girl she used to be. To top it all off, Dana�s well-to-do ex-husband is suddenly struggling with his child-care payments. This is a wonderful tale of family and growing up, whether as a child, a teenager, or a middle-aged mother. Dana gains unlikely friends at her dentist�s office, loses longtime allies, and even begins to date again. Dana, who is at times nice to a fault, learns that single motherhood requires both love and a sharp edge of responsibility. Heartwarming, funny, well-penned, unexpectedly suspenseful, this is a solid page-turner, right through to the touching end. --Julie Hunt