All manner of calamity has pared down the Willoughby family tree to but two descendantsùKate, a wise and watchful teenager, and Addy, her reclusive and needy mother. With the death of her brother in Vietnam and her fatherÆs suicide, Kate becomes her motherÆs keeperùpaying bills with the same efficiency she applies to her studies and retreating behind the sturdy, protective walls of the familyÆs limestone mansion from the gossipy community of Fayette, Illinois. When her motherÆs broken heart fails, Kate becomes full heiress to the familyÆs tragedy. At her motherÆs funeral, however, Kate is introduced to lively and eccentric Southern relations she didnÆt know existed ùher uncle Charlie and his two sons, Gilbert and Hap. In a sweeping gesture that is at once comforting and insidious, Uncle Charlie takes Kate under his wing and takes charge, encouraging her precocious self-determination while staking his familyÆs claim as kin. Kate drops out of school and falls under GilbertÆs mysterious, seductive spellùfollowing him on an odyssey that carries her from youthful trust to a precarious, premature awakening to womanhood.
From the Garden of Memory
is a haunting, evocative novel about blood ties and inescapable legacies, about the sanctuary of family and the treacherous labyrinth of secrets. In this beautifully written debut, Dwight Williams brings to life a world tinged with the flavor of Southern Gothic and the dangerous enchantment of desire.