Sweetwater Creek

By: Anne Rivers Siddons

Narrated by: Anna Fields

From New York Times 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, Sweetwater Creek draws you into the luminous landscape of the Lowcountry, with characters that will linger long after you've finished.

©2005 Anne Rivers Siddons; (P)2005 BBC Audiobooks America, Inc.

Her love of the low country.

She describes the low country beautifully. I know she knows what she is talking about.

lSweetwater

Great book but didn't like the ending about Lulu way too sad because she was one of the main lovable characters

Siddons and Fields

The writer's story and the reader are so perfectly suited...one of my favorite collaborations .

The cycle of life

Isn’t every young girl’s life fraught with disappointment, wanting to be loved for who she is, longing to be noticed, often just barely avoiding disaster in the process? This tender story is just that, and some.

Complicated story, great read

I am a long-time ARS fan, and this book hits right in the middle of the pack for me. It has richly developed characters, a setting that is a character in itself, and a family story that is as complicated as real life. Having some dark issues told from a child's point of view is unique but this reader does it well.