SWEETWATER CREEK

Anna Fields crafts an unforgettable voice in 11-year-old Emily Parmenter, who inhabits a beautiful but isolated world on her father's spaniel-breeding plantation. When Lulu Foxworth, a troubled Carolina debutante who craves the plantation's isolation for mysterious reasons, arrives for a summer stay, the tempo of Emily's world falters, and unease becomes palpable. Fields's characters are all fully fleshed. In particular, the family cook, Cleta, is a joy; her gravelly world-weary mutterings are a counterpoint to the drawling bellow of Emily's father and the bittersweet shifts of Emily's own voice as it travels from youthful bewilderment, to awakening awareness, to clear-eyed understanding of an adult world. A superior read of a memorable book. A.M.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]