Introducing: AFTER PAPA LEFT Elizabeth Havey

“As a teenager working in a department store, Sunny looked for him, her Papa. Because he might appear, was just a few towns over, reading books in the local library, smoking his pipe in a basement apartment, eating Franco-American spaghetti cold, out of the can.”

But even a beloved father can make mistakes…after his departure, Sunny’s mother finding herself pregnant, broken, because of this surprising abandonment. Sunny’s mother struggling to pay the bills, while failing to protect her daughter from becoming infatuated with Professor Davis Burnquist, whose title has nothing to do with providing Sunny fatherly advice and protection. But despite her mistakes, Sunny can also be wise, capable, she earning degrees, doing all that she can to support herself, help her mother. But Sunny is also young, vulnerable, and thus unable to fully escape the grip of Davis Burnquist while struggling to discover who she wants to be, if she is capable of earning degrees and finding a way to finally support herself and her mother.

The novel reminds us of beginnings, that through all her mistakes and yearnings, one thing in Sunny’s life remains a constant: the day her father took her to the Beal Botanical Center, the day he bought her a small watch, the strap reading TIME TO GARDEN. Though that day is now only a memory, it remains one that will help Sunny finally realize that her love of gardening can support her, save her from Burnquist, and that she can reignite the love she and her mother have for one another. This is Sunny’s journey, she needing to find her way and once again dedicate her life to the tender care of family, the love of cardinals and always the cultivation of flowers. Thanks for reading, and a profound thanks to Diane Stringam Tolley, who helped me start on this journey.

Beth