SOMETHING RISING (LIGHT AND SWIFT) - Softcover

‘Stark yet compelling.’ Vogue

‘What intelligence is here, and what grace, and what unsentimental (and contagious!) love for our messy ways here on planet Earth. Haven Kimmel is true gospel wearing bluejeans; you read her and you are lifted up.’ Elizabeth Berg

‘Gorgeously written and brilliantly conceived. “Something Rising (Light and Swift)” is touching and funny and warm and spirited.’ Augusten Burroughs, author of ‘Running With Scissors’

‘You're going to love meeting Cassie Claiborne, the redoubtable girl at the heart of this wonderful coming of age story. She has it all – rebellion, grit, compassion, humor, and a perfect eye. Beautifully written, “Something Rising” is a wonder.’ Sue Monk Kidd, author of ‘The Secret Life of Bees’

From the internationally bestselling author of ‘The Solace of Leaving Early’, a funny, heartwrenching and unforgettable novel following the fortunes of a feisty young female pool hustler.

Cassie Claiborne, at ten, was surely too young to be the head of her disparate family. But who else was going to do it? Growing up in Indiana with her distant, heartbroken mother, Laura, her fragile, eccentric sister Belle, and her beloved grandfather Poppy, Cassie got sick of waiting for her father to come home from his everlasting gambling and drinking binges and took matters into her own hands. Taught by her father to play pool, Cassie was a natural and was soon hustling experienced pool players – and winning.

We follow Cassie from a complex little girl to a rebellious and impetuous young woman as she tries to create a world for her mother and sister. Overwhelmed but compelled by her family’s love, Cassie feels herself drawn back to the past by the stories of her mother's youth, and she leaves her town for New Orleans, hoping that there she can find a truth to soothe her wounded soul and to allow herself the happiness she has been denied.

Funny, heartbreaking, full of the eccentricity of small-town life and the overwrought drama of the close-knit family, ‘Something Rising (Light and Swift)’ is the story of a very unique young woman who knows that 'the worst thing that can happen to you is that you will find what you seek'. It tells of grief and love and growing up and leaving home in a way that is desperately sad but ultimately uplifting.