Coming soon--A FAMILY SAGA
One summer morning, they vanished. Afterwards, echoes pinged through her head. Did it really happen? --just a nightmare? But she knew the truth. They weren’t hiding. They hadn’t run away. They were gone in the permanent sense. And when they vanished, other things vanished, too.
Jolly friends quit joking. Chatterboxes shut up. Blood relations turned brittle, because all of them were guilty. Summers would never again seem ripe and promising. No. After the vanishing, every new summer taunted them. Somebody called it a cosmic crime. Yes. They'd thought the precious ones were here to stay until the absence shriveled them to nothingness, like salt on a slug.
Advance Praise
"Heartbreaking and heart lifting, the book will grip readers with its searing portrayal of devastating loss. I was moved by Sylvie's reconstruction of life and family by embracing memories and searching for connections in unforeseen places."
Susan Hartmann
Distinguished Arts and Humanities Professor of History Emerita, The Ohio State University
"Totally engrossing. A gifted writer with a wonderful sense of rhythm and pacing, Sharyn Talbert should be teaching our students. I was especially interested in how the Church affected the life of her protagonist, Sylvie."
Christopher Highley
Professor of English; Director, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University, Author, Blackfriars in Early Modern London: Theater, Church, and Neighborhood, Oxford University Press, 2022
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"Sharyn Talbert has written a wonderful book about every family's greatest fear. With a sharp eye for grief and a killing turn of phrase, Memory's Compass will stay as long in the memory as the work of Emily Dickinson. Talbert shows us a heartbreaking new America, a world that, for all its sunlight, is in deep pain. At the same time, her book has an arc of grace, taking us to an improbable place of light and healing. This is a profound work of real importance."
Sebastian D. G. Knowles
Professor of English Emeritus, The Ohio State University
"All of the characters come alive in a spectrum of anguish and joy, but it's the children I'll never forget. The depiction of the harrowing events defy the imagination. The story is a testament to the transfiguring power of love."
Ronda Griffith Bivens
MSW, Educator, Vinton County Schools