Letter to My Daughter: A Novel

Dear Elizabeth,<br>It's early morning and I'm sitting here wondering where you are, hoping you're all right.<br> <br><br>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 &quot;everything I've always meant to tell you but never have.&quot;<br><br>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.<br> <br>Absorbing and affirming, George Bishop's magnificent debut brilliantly captures a sense of time and place with a distinct and inviting voice. <b>Letter to My Daughter</b> is a heartwrenching novel of mothers, daughters, and the lessons we all learn when we come of age.