Letter to My Daughter, George Bishop
Letter to My Daughter, George Bishop
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Letter to My Daughter
A Novel

Author: George Bishop

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Unabridged: 4 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/12/2010


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.

About George Bishop

George Bishop holds an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he won the department's Award of Excellence for a collection of stories. He has spent most of the past decade living and teaching overseas in Slovakia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, India, and Japan. He now lives in New Orleans.


Reviews

Arguments. Mothers and daughters have them often, but this argument was different. This one ended with a mother’s slap and a daughter’s angry exodus into the night. As worry and regret floods her brain, Laura sits down in her quiet kitchen and begins writing a letter to her daughter, Elizabeth. A le......more

Goodreads review by Christy

The mother-daughter relationship is an undefinable dichotomy that is either not addressed in fictional entertainment or belittled. I had my reservations about this book (considering it’s written by a George) but it does a great job of addressing the relationship in a realistic and matter-o-fact styl......more

I admit that I am influenced by book titles in my choice of books to read. In that sense, Letter to My Daughter was somewhat off putting for me. I was expecting a somewhat predictable story of a mother writing a letter to her daughter. Fortunately, I overcame my reticence, and upon reading the first......more