Terry Kay – författare

Two turn-of-the-century baseball players vie for the love of one woman in this "affecting" historical saga that "glows with warmth and sincerity" (Publishers Weekly).When Foster Lanier and Ben Phelps are released from a professional baseball team in 1904, it is the only experience they have in common, until they meet a runaway — a girl-woman named Lottie Parker — on the train that takes them from Augusta, Georgia, and away from their dreams of greatness.Foster will marry her and father her son.Ben will escort her home.And Lottie will change the lives of everyone she meets, from the day she runs away until she finally finds the place where she belongs."Elegaic . . . [Kay] evokes these unsung lives with remarkable tenderness." —Kirkus Reviews"Kay''s prose has an almost dreamlike accessibility, flowing as smoothly as a river without curves." —The Orlando Sentinel"Captivating . . . timeless. . . . Taking Lottie Home offers the whole literary package—imagery and metaphor, characters wound together in an ennobling story." —The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

It was a wonderful summer, a great memory, the kind of love everybody ought to have. It changed my life -- or almost did -- and I think about it more than I should, but that was a long time ago. In the summer of 1955, Madison Lee "Bobo" Murphy was a waiter at the Catskills'' Pine hill inn, where the eccentric Avrum Feldman became his unlikely friend. A rural Southerner on his exciting first journey north, Bobo learned from Avrum that each life is marked by one grand, undeniable moment of change that never stops mattering. It came for Bobo in his first meeting with Amy Lourie, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. But for a wealthy Jewish girl and a Georgia farm boy, the summer had to end, leaving Bobo to learn another painful lesson. Now thirty-eight years later, Avrum''s death beckons Bobo to the Catskills once more. When Amy unexpectedly appears, they discover that two lifetimes and a thousand Catskills sunsets stand between who they were and who they have become -- until mysteriously, miraculously, Bobo hears the dreams of his youth, of the young man who went forth and became part of a love larger than himself....

A lyrical and poignant novel from one of America''s greatest storytellers, the author of To Dance with the White Dog.On a sunny summer day in 1948, Noah Locke arrives in Bowerstown, a small North Carolina community bordered by lakes and set deep in the Valley of Light. A quiet, simple man and a war veteran, Noah has a mystical gift for fishing, yet he remains haunted by the war and by the terrible scenes he witnessed when his infantry unit liberated Dachau. His wandering—doing odd jobs and catching fish for sale or trade—is both an escape from his past and a search for a place to call home. In the valley, Noah is initially treated with amusement by the locals he meets at Taylor Bowers''s general store—until he begins fishing. Once they see his almost magical skills, however, he becomes the talk of the valley and is urged to stay long enough to participate in the annual school fishing contest. He agrees, accepting a job offer by Taylor to paint his store when he isn''t filling orders for fish. He finds lodging in an abandoned shack by a small lake the locals call the Lake of Grief and, also, the Lake of No Fish, because they think all the fish have disappeared. Noah knows they are wrong. Beneath the water is a warrior bass waiting to test Noah''s gift. In the way that innocence creates powerful events, Noah meets Eleanor Cunningham, a young widow whose husband supposedly killed himself after returning home from the war. Over the course of a week, Noah will be led into the secret lives of the residents of the Valley of Light, will join them as they mourn a tragedy, and will experience a miracle that will guide him home at last. Luminous, memorable, and deeply moving, The Valley of Light is the finest work to date from a brilliant storyteller.

In the summer of 1955, Madison Lee "Bobo" Murphy was a waiter at the Catskills'' Pine Hill Inn. A rural Southerner, he had never heard the word meshugge until Avrum Feldman -- a retired New York City furrier -- became his unlikely friend. For Bobo, nothing about that special time and place ever lost its glow: Avrum''s obsession with the haunting voice of a famous opera diva, music that no one else could hear; the exotic mingling of Yiddish and German in the dining room; and the girl he met and loved.In everyone''s life, Avrum claimed, there is one grand, undeniable moment that never stops mattering. For Bobo, it was his first glimpse of beautiful Amy Lourie. But, for a wealthy Jewish girl and a Georgia farm boy, the summer had to end, leaving Bobo with the pain of lost love. Nearly forty years later, his children grown and marriage comfortably routine, Bobo comes north once more; there, amidst the haunting hints of Amy''s presence, she unexpectedly appears. Nothing has dimmed the passion of their youth, yet two lifetimes and a thousand Catskills sunsets stand between who they were and who they have become. The barriers between them are different now. But mysteriously, miraculously, Bobo reawakens the dream of a love larger than himself....

A moving story of love, grief, and coming to terms with death.