Short Synopsis
Fans of Nicholas Sparks will love George Bishop's heart-wrenching debut about mothers, daughters, and the lessons we all learn when we come of age.

Full Synopsis
Dear Elizabeth,

It's early morning and I'm sitting here wondering where you are, hoping you're all right.

A fight, ended by a slap, sends Elizabeth out the door of her Baton Rouge home on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Her mother, Laura, is left to fret and worry—and remember. Wracked with guilt as she awaits Liz's return, Laura begins a letter to her daughter, hoping to convey "everything I've always meant to tell you but never have."

In her painfully candid confession, Laura shares memories of her own troubled adolescence in rural Louisiana, growing up in an intensely conservative household. She recounts her relationship with a boy she loved despite her parents' disapproval, the fateful events that led to her being sent away to a strict Catholic boarding school, the personal tragedy brought upon her by the Vietnam War, and, finally, the meaning of the enigmatic tattoo below her right hip.

Absorbing and affirming, George Bishop's magnificent debut brilliantly captures a sense of time and place with a distinct and inviting voice. Letter to My Daughter is a heartwrenching novel of mothers, daughters, and the lessons we all learn when we come of age.

"You will be pulled into every paragraph of Letter to My Daughter, especially if you've ever been a parent or a teenager." ---Clyde Edgerton, author of Lunch at the Piccadilly

"[Listeners] will find much to enjoy as Bishop brings alive an independent, fearless young Laura." ---Library Journal

"Hankie alert! Bishop's debut is guaranteed to keep the tears flowing." ---Booklist

"[Bishop is] one of those rare writers who can write about the heart---and heartbreak---without sugarcoating, yet you feel uplifted at the end." ---Louise Shaeffer, author of Serendipity

"Letter to My Daughter is a first novel of immense power. It makes George Bishop a novelist to keep your eye on." ---Pat Conroy, bestselling author of South of Broad