The Roots That Clutch

The First World War has claimed the life of Colbert Cobb Whittier s brother and the sanity of his friends. He returns home at the beginning of the 1920s, a decade that will mark America s passage into the modern age. Against the tumultuous backdrop of a small town that is both clinging to its past and stretching toward its future, he must hold what is left of his family together. When two mysterious sisters seem to contact his dead brother through a séance, he begins to question everything that he believes. As he continues to explore the circumstances of his brother s life and death, he discovers that the truth at the center of his town and his world is stranger than he ever imagined. His coming of age becomes a journey in the truest sense, and he finds that it is the roots of family, duty, and loss that connect us all.

A Finalist in the Great American Book Contest