Ronald Vierling's first novel in the Clementine trilogy, Clementine Camille: Volume One: An American Romance, ends when African-American Clementine Brown and Caucasian-American Tyler Raymond's twin daughters are six years old. Clementine Camille: Volume Two: An American Memoir begins ten years later, when the couple's twin daughters, Josephine and Abigail, are fifteen, which means Clementine and Tyler not only face issues that naturally arise with raising teen-age daughters, they must also deal with those issues that attend their daughters' mixed racial heritage. Thus, while An American Romance chronicles how Clementine and Tyler became adults and parents as well as the story of the family and friends who shaped them, the events that unfold in An American Memoir test everything they have come to believe about love and loss, about race and identity, about ambition and the sometimes contradictory consequences of achievement.

If Clementine Camille: Volume One: An American Romance is the story of sincere and joyful affection that overcomes the artificial barrier of skin color and ethnic heritage as an impediment to love, and if Clementine Camille: Volume Two: An American Memoir is a portrayal of maturity and achievement in the complex social and psychological context of both racial sensitivity and insensitivity, then Clementine Camille: Volume Three: An American Life--the final novel in the Clementine Camille trilogy--takes on the most challenging theme of all: the agonizing loss and the bitter grief that follows when Clementine Brown and Tyler Raymond's on-going romance is shattered by sudden tragedy. Thus, while the issues that attend racial awareness are ever-present in both the foreground and the background as the novel unfolds in a juxtaposing of reality and memory and dream, in the final analysis, An American Life portrays the struggle not just to survive but to survive with worth and dignity that challenges everything Clementine and Tyler had managed to create over their lifetime together. At the same time, that there is a story to tell after the tragedy is both a testament to the love Clementine and Tyler conjured and shared and a tribute to every member of the family who stands fast when, for a while, it appeared that, indeed, the sky might well be falling down all around them.

Ronald Vierling's first novel in the Clementine trilogy, Clementine Camille: Volume One: An American Romance, ends when African-American Clementine Brown and Caucasian-American Tyler Raymond's twin daughters are six years old. Clementine Camille: Volume Two: An American Memoir begins ten years later, when the couple's twin daughters, Josephine and Abigail, are fifteen, which means Clementine and Tyler not only face issues that naturally arise with raising teen-age daughters, they must also deal with those issues that attend their daughters' mixed racial heritage. Thus, while AnAmerican Romance chronicles how Clementine and Tyler became adults and parents as well as the story of the family and friends who shaped them, the events that unfold in An American Memoir test everything they have come to believe about love and loss, about race and identity, about ambition and the sometimes contradictory consequences of achievement.

A Most Unlikely Likely American Tale Appearances can be deceptive. First impressions can be misleading. People who might seem so different that they could never become a couple sometimes turn around and fall in love. Perhaps that’s part of what makes the world interesting. Falling in Love at the End of the Road is that kind of story. A young, unmarried Haitian woman, Isabel Jean, fleeing with her ten-year-old daughter as far away from the dangers of violent abuse as she can – all the way to Ely, Minnesota – crosses paths with a mature Caucasian widower, Samuel Woolf, who has lived in lonely isolation in his family’s lake house for two years following his beloved wife’s death. Initially drawn together by her financial and his emotional needs, as time passes, they discover their apparent ethnic differences are superficial; their psychological similarities are profound. However, be advised: while this tale might initially appear predictable and simple, it is, in fact, deceptively compelling and complex – as compelling as the heroine and hero’s evolving relationship and as complex as the surprising if terrifying climax. Isabel Ebony Jean and Samuel Singer Woolf may well be the most unlikely likely couple modern readers have ever had the experience of meeting. Joyce Davidsen M.Ed., University of Central Florida

A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers “A stunning achievement, and J. Courtney Sullivan’s best book yet. Sullivan weaves a narrative that’s fascinating and thought-provoking. I literally could not put this book down.” —Ann Napolitano, New York Times best-selling author of Hello Beautiful On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother. Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself. Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.

Evening Street Review is centered on the belief that all men and women are created equal, that they have a natural claim to certain inalienable rights, and that among these are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. With this center, and an emphasis on writing that has both clarity and depth, it practices the widest eclecticism. Evening Street Review reads submissions of poetry (free verse, formal verse, and prose poetry) and prose (short stories and creative nonfiction) year-round. Submit 3-6 poems or 1-2 prose pieces at a time. Payment is one contributor’s copy. Copyright reverts to author upon publication. Response time is 3-6 months. Please address submissions to Editors, 2881 Wright St, Sacramento, CA 95821-4819. Email submissions are also acceptable; send to the following address as Microsoft Word or rich text files (.rtf): [email protected]. For submission guidelines, subscription information, published works, and author profiles, please visit our website: www.eveningstreetpress.com.