Read more
Zusatztext "Told in alternating points of view, this character-driven story explores women’s battle for equality and the rewards to be gained when women help lift each other up." — Atlanta Journal-Constitution "An incisive, warmhearted exploration of women’s roles in shaping society, the future, and each other." — Kirkus Reviews "An engrossing, entertaining novel about Southern women seeking justice for themselves and other women at any cost." — Bitch Magazine Informationen zum Autor Gin Phillips is the award-winning author of Fierce Kingdom and The Well and the Mine. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her family. Klappentext When an ambitious female lawyer becomes the victim of harassment, she must decide what's more important: her family's safety or the rights she's fighting for? Set in Alabama in the early '80s, Family Law follows a young lawyer, Lucia, who is making a name for herself at a time when a woman in a courtroom is still a rarity. She's received plenty of threats for her work extricating women and children from troubled relationships, but her own happy marriage has always felt far removed from her work. When her mother's pending divorce brings teenaged Rachel into Lucia's orbit, Rachel finds herself captivated not only with Lucia, but with the change Lucia represents. Rachel is out-spoken and curious, and she chafes at the rules her mother lays down as the bounds of acceptable feminine behavior. In Lucia, Rachel sees the potential for a new path into womanhood. But their unconventional friendship takes them both to a crossroads. When a moment of violence--a threat made good--puts Rachel in danger, Lucia has to decide how much her work means to her and what she's willing to sacrifice to keep moving forward. Written in alternating voices from Lucia and Rachel's perspectives, Family Law is a fresh take on what the push for women's rights looks like to the ordinary women and girls who long for a world redefined. Addressing mother daughter relationships and what roles we can play in the lives of women who aren't our family, the novel examines how we shape each other and how we make a difference. The funny, strong, and yet tender-hearted female leads of Family Law illuminate a new kind of timeless Southern fiction--atmospheric, rich, and with quietly surprising twists and nuances all its own. Leseprobe I. Lucia Gilbert listened as the two men in sherbet-colored suits spun their fairy tale. "I bathe her," said the father, leaning forward on the witness stand. "Put on diaper cream. Feed her. She loves peaches. Honestly, my daughter is the best part of my day." "So you're an involved parent?" asked his lawyer, Rob Letson, syrup voiced, as if he didn't know that over the past year the man had repeatedly left his two-year-old daughter home alone. "I know every hair on her head," the father said. He was well packaged, Lucia would give him that. He did not fidget. His pale green suit set off his dark eyes, and his pleasant face was still untouched by his nighttime habits. He kept his hands out of sight, though, and Lucia wondered if Letson had finally noticed that his client's fingertips were like open wounds, chewed so ravenously that the nail beds were infected. Lucia spent a decent portion of her days reaching across one desk or another to shake a hand-sun blotched, meaty, limp, veins bulging, nails glossy as buttons-and hands could tell you things. Netta Peterson nudged Lucia with a sharp elbow. "He's lying." Lucia patted her client's hand. Netta and her husband were both white haired and crinkle-eyed: their only flaws were Richard's Lucky Strikes and Netta's chattiness. "She hasn't touched peaches for months," Netta hissed. "When Bethany was alive, the man never did anything. He didn't even mow the yard. Or change a li...
