Cavedweller

A lush, epic novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Bastard Out of Carolina.

When Delia Byrd packs up her old Datsun and her daughter Cissy and gets on the Santa Monica Freeway heading south and east, she is leaving everything she has known for ten years: the tinsel glitter of the rock 'n' roll world; her dreams of singing and songwriting; and a life lived on credit cards and whiskey with a man who made promises he couldn't keep. Delia Byrd is going back to Cayro, Georgia, to reclaim her life--and the two daughters she left behind...

Told in the incantatory voice of one of America's most eloquent storytellers, Cavedweller is a sweeping novel of the human spirit, the lost and hidden recesses of the heart, and the place where violence and redemption intersect.

"Luminous. Unabashedly emotional. Pays close attention to the way women get by, the way they come to forgive one another, the way they choose who they will be. Might have been written by George Elliot, had she ever passed through the shockwaves of rock-n-roll." --The New York Times Book Review

"Rich and involving...Its generous vision of the world stays with you." -Newsweek

"With the yarn-spinning rhythm of old Southern legends. An epic novel full of sweet-dream fever." --Boston Globe

"Spectacular. Sensual. Allison has a spare gospel-tinged lyricism that few can match." --New York Newsday

"Hooks the reader on the first page." -Time

"Its narrative takes you over without your realizing it...the heartfelt urgency of what happens to whom carries you along." --Boston Globe

"A startling and powerful novel about a woman's painful salvation...well worth the time and the tears." --New York Post

"Brilliant. Funny, heartbreaking." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Introduces a new cast of indomitable women. Powerful. Sassy. Knowing. An extraordinary book." --Baltimore Sun