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From bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons comes a bittersweet and finely wrought story of friendship, family, and Charleston society.

At twelve, Emily Parmenter knows alone all too well. Left mostly to herself after her beautiful young mother disappeared and her beloved older brother died, Emily is keenly aware of yearning and loss. Rather than be consumed by sadness, she has built a life around the faded plantation where her remote father and hunting-obsessed brothers raise the legendary Lowcountry Boykin hunting spaniels. It is a meager, narrow, masculine world, but to Emily it has magic: the storied deep-sea dolphins who come regularly to play in Sweetwater Creek; her extraordinary bond with the beautiful dogs she trains; her almost mystic communion with her own spaniel, Elvis; the dreaming old Lowcountry itself. Emily hides from the dreaded world here. It is enough.

And then comes Lulu Foxworth, troubled daughter of a truly grand plantation, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season to spend a healing summer with the quiet marshes and river, and the life-giving dogs. Where Emily's father sees their guest as an entrée to a society he thought forever out of reach, Emily is at once threatened and mystified. Lulu has a powerful enchantment of her own, and this, along with the dark, crippling secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's magical water world apart and let the real one in—but at a terrible price.

Poignant and emotionally compelling, Anne Rivers Siddons's Sweetwater Creek draws you into the luminous landscape of the Lowcountry. With characters that linger long after you've turned the last page, this engaging tale is destined to become an instant classic.

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“A fully alive world of many dimensions.”

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“A page-turner. The setting and the isolated life will remind readers of Sue Monk Kidd’s THE MERMAID CHAIR.”

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“A powerful narrative that should satiate Siddons’ many fans and captivate new ones.”

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“Fans of Southern novels in the vein of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES will relish this one’s rich atmosphere.”

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“Few writers are better than Siddons at evoking the sweet gentility of Southern climes.”

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“Lush, lyrical prose and loving detail.”

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“Richly atmospheric…touching, dramatic… one of Siddons’ most impressive novels.”

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“Rises above…by the sheer beauty and power of its prose. A story that refuses to be put down.”

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“Themes of love and loss are intertwined throughout, as the reader rides on a tide of Siddons’ lush, lyrical prose.”

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“This is Siddons’ best work.”

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“This story, with its haunting, lyrical prose and complex characters...will captivate any reader.”