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"With both skill and passion, John Warley carries the reader through generations and countries. Following plot twists and heart-turns, we become a member of many families, loving and loathing as we do in any real family. A Southern Girl is rich with trustworthy and vulnerable narrators who allow us the privilege of entering the secret traditions and lore-soaked South as well as the clandestine corners of the characters’ souls. This is a gorgeous, heartfelt book from a masterful storyteller; I didn't want to miss a word of Warley's whispered secrets." —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of And Then I Found You, Coming Up for Air, and others
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PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kathie Bennett 864.706.1484 kathiebennett@magictimeliterar y.com
“A gorgeous, heartfelt book from a masterful storyteller...” —Patti Callahan Henry, author of And Then I Found You, Friend Request, and The Perfect Love Song
The worlds of privilege and poverty collide in this moving tale of adoption, identity, belonging, dedication, and love. Set against the exquisite, historical backdrop of Charleston's insular South of Broad neighborhood, A Southern Girl is a tale of international adoption and of families lost, then found anew through revelations, courage, and the perseverance of a love without bounds. With two biological sons and a promising career, Coleman Carter seems set to fulfill his promise as a resourceful trial lawyer, devoted husband, and dutiful father until his wife, Elizabeth, champions their adoption of a Korean orphan. This seemingly altruistic mission estranges Coleman's conservative parents and demands that he now embrace the unknown as fully as he has always entrenched himself in the familiar. Elizabeth, a self-proclaimed liberal with a global sense of duty, is eager for the adop
tion, while Coleman, a scion of the Old South, is at best a reluctant participant. But the arrival of Soo Yun (later called Allie) into the Carter household and the challenging reactions of Coleman's peers and parents awakens in him a broadening sense of responsibility and dedIction to his new family that opens his eyes to the subtle racism and exclusionary activities that had dominated his sheltered life. To garner Allie's entrance into Charleston society, Coleman must come to terms with his past and guide Allie toward finding her own origins as the Carters forge a new family identity and confront generations-old fears inherent in Southern traditions of purity and prestige. Deftly told through the distinctive voices of Allie's birth mother, her orphanage nurse, her adoptive mother Elizabeth, and finally Coleman himself, A Southern Girl brings us deeply into Allie's plights—first for her very survival and then for her sense of identity, belonging, and love in her new and not always welcoming culture. In this truly international tale, John Warley guides us through the enclaves of southern privilege in New Hampton, Virginia, and Charleston, the poverty-stricken back alleys of Seoul, South Korea, the jungles of Vietnam, and the stone sidewalks of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, as the bonds between father and daughter become strong enough to confront the trials of their pasts and present alike. The first release from Pat Conroy's Story River Books, A Southern Girl includes a foreword by New York Times bestselling novelist Therese Anne Fowler. "Nobody does family pride like a Southerner. But in his balletic, big-hearted new novel, John Warley cajoles and challenges the limits of that pride. Here, it's the beaming, fatherly love awakened by an adopted child that's cause for celebration, rather than one's ancestral silver or membership in the St. Cecilia Society. While reading A Southern Girl--a rebel yell for the traditional, non-traditional family--I was wondrously reminded of theologian Stanley Hauerwas's great line: "If you want to welcome the stranger, have a child." No kidding." —Robert Leleux, author of The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, and The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving
ABOUT JOHN WARLEY John Warley, a native South Carolinian, is a graduate of The Citadel and the University of Virginia School of Law. He practiced law in Virginia until 1993, when he moved to Mexico to write and teach. Now a fulltime writer, Warley divides his time between Beaufort, South Carolina, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. His previous books include Bethesda's Child and The Moralist. He and his wife, Barbara, have three sons, Caldwell, Nelson, and Carter, born in Newport News, Virginia, and a daughter, MaryBeth, born in Seoul, South Korea. “John Warley’s marvelous novel A Southern Girl is the best book I’ve ever read about Charleston’s mysterious and glittering high society. Its affirmation of the enduring power of parental love vying against that enigmatic realm is reverential and stunningly original, as stylish as a novel by John Irving and as tightly written as one by John Grisham. I wish I’d written this book.” —Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, South Abroad, and others
“As I began reading A Southern Girl, I was quickly caught up in the story, to the point of forgetting what I knew about the author. . . . Instead, I was pulled into these characters’ complex lives. With Elizabeth and Jong Sim and Hana and Coleman, I struggled with the practical versus the profound. I considered the problems and the benefits of birthright, tradition, opportunity, exclusion. I thought about loss and renewal and what constitutes family. I contemplated the questions of what we owe the people we care for and what we owe ourselves. I wondered how—or whether—Allie, the Korean born Southern girl at the center of it all, would come through her experience all right. We are affected and shaped by many forces in our lives, and among those forces is the power of story. A Southern Girl is one that I hope will move you as it has done me.” —Therese Ann Fowler, New York Times-bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
“A stunning achievement, A Southern Girl is a beautifully written, heartfelt account of a father's love for an adopted daughter and his struggles in helping her find her own identify in an elite yet conflicted society. This triumphant story belongs to anyone who has ever loved, grieved, questioned, rejoiced, despaired, and risked it all for the strongest bond of all, that glorious, undefinable unit we call family.” —Cassandra King, bestselling author of five novels including Moonrise “A Southern Girl is rich with trustworthy and vulnerable narrators who allow us the privilege of entering the secret traditions and lore-soaked South as well as the clandestine corners of the character's souls. This is a gorgeous, heartfelt book from a masterful storyteller; I didn't want to miss a word of Warley's whispered secrets.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of And Then I Found You, Coming Up for Air, and others “John Warley’s novel takes us on a fascinating and emotional journey that proves to be a richly rewarding story of life and family. It’s simply unforgettable.” —Dorothea Benton Frank, New York Times bestselling author of ten novels “Forget what you know about the South. John Warley serves up a unique perspective and challenges perceptions of the southern belle. A powerhouse of emotion, A Southern Girl explores the depths of parental love and the lengths to which it will go. Warley’s words are fresh and urgent and beg you to keep reading.” —Nicole Seitz, author of A Hundred Years of Happiness and Beyond Molasses Creek "Everyone should read and love this unforgettable novel. John Warley has skillfully written an intimate portrait of a conservative Southern family—and a world away—a mother’s painful choices. This is one of those rare novels that linger in both your heart and mind long after the last page has turned. I’ve reserved a spot for A Southern Girl on my 'This one’s Special' bookshelf." —Bev Marshall, author of Walking Through Shadows: A Novel, Hot Fudge Sunday Blues and others
ABOUT STORY RIVER BOOKS New York Times-bestselling author Pat Conroy is taking on a new role as editor-at-large for Story River Books, a South Carolina-based original fiction imprint to be published by the University of South Carolina Press. Named for a small river which runs along Fripp Island, Story River Books will brand and expand USC Press's commitment to publishing top-notch regional fiction under Conroy's editorship. In the opening lines of The Prince of Tides, Conroy's protagonist Tom Wingo muses "My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call." Story River Books will actively seek to publish writers who share this anchorage to South Carolina. Open to original novels and short story collections, the inprint will emphasize an inclusive representation of Palmetto State writers by race, gender, and geography. Story River Books will publish books in which South photo by: David Spielman Carolina is the main if not always exclusive setting. While the books may diverge greatly in style and themes, they will collectively present new perspectives on the dynamic, complex, and oft-contested past and present of a recognizable South Carolina for readers both within and beyond the Palmetto State. A NOTE FROM PAT... South Carolina has given me a million stories and no writer who ever lived had such riches to choose from. This is the reason I offered to edit the Story River Books imprint for USC Press." Literature can choose anywhere it wants to be born. It can come from a nursing home in Seneca or Summerville, from an old mill town near Greenville, from a peach orchard in York, or from anywhere the sting and loveliness of language goes to dwell. I want Story River Books to find and nurture those voices,
and for writers young and old in this infinitely variable state to be recognized and heard. I believe stories matter in a state like South Carolina because they mattered deeply to my sister and me. Though we came up in the damaged house of a fighter pilot, moving every year, we lit upon South Carolina in our high school years. My sister Carol went to Winthrop and I went to the Citadel. She has turned out poems and I've written novels that bleed with this state's colors. Our mother had a dream of us being writers, and though my mother did not go to college, she discharged in us a passion for words that we still wake to every day. I've watched South Carolina produce a distinguished crop of writers, both homegrown and legal immigrants like me. I watched the stunning appearance of the great Josephine Humphrey as she produced world-class fiction from her home in Charleston. Ron Rash burst out of Clemson with a degree in creative writing and stands poised to be the best southern writer of his generation. The peach farmer Dori Sanders created a bold voice from the black folk of South Carolina and Harlan Greene gave notice of a rich vein of literature from the gay South. Sue Monk Kidd gave us her wonderful Secret Life of Bees, Dorothea Benton Frank made the beach book her own personal property, Mary Alice Monroe speaks for the preservation of the wild things, and Ken Burger brings to life the region around his homeland of Allendale. Anne Rivers Siddons, the magisterial mother of the modern novel for southern women is adding to the literature of Charleston as she continues her amazing life among southern letters. I know fifty other South Carolina writers I haven't mentioned here, and through all of us, this state has created a powerful literary voice, reverberating around the world. I want a direct role in keeping that splendid sense of literary momentum alive. South Carolina has given me a million stories and no writer who ever lived had such riches to choose from. This is the reason I offered to edit the Story River Books series for USC Press. What I owe South Carolina is not repayable, but I started out as a kid in Beaufort who wanted to be a writer and I didn't have the slightest notion how to become one. With this new fiction imprint, I believe I can help bring out voices in this state that might not be heard otherwise, and those as-of-yet unheard voices can help reshape our world. The University of South Carolina Press is in an ideal position to find new voices in South Carolina, and to smartly bring those storytellers to the attention of a reading public overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of product and noise. By focusing on regionally based fiction of the highest quality and of lasting importance, as we aspire to do, I believe that Story River Books can bring international attention to our state and its flagship university. —Pat Conroy May 2013