Books by Sonja Bentley Zant

Hurricane Season

by Nicole Melleby, Lauren K. Denton, Fernanda Melchor, Sonja Bentley Zant

A USA TODAY bestseller! Hurricane Season is the story of sisterhood, motherhood, and an unconventional journey to healing—and the relationships that must be mended along the way.
Betsy and Ty Franklin, owners of Franklin Dairy Farm in southern Alabama, have long since buried their desire for children of their own. While Ty manages their herd of dairy cows, Betsy busies herself with the farm’s day-to-day operations and tries to forget her dream of motherhood.
But when her free-spirited sister, Jenna, drops off her two young daughters for “just two weeks,” Betsy’s carefully constructed wall of self-protection begins to crumble. As the two weeks stretch deeper into the Alabama summer, Betsy and Ty learn to navigate the new additions in their world—and revel in the laughter that now fills their home. Meanwhile, record temperatures promise to usher in the most active hurricane season in decades.
Attending an art retreat four hundred miles away, Jenna is fighting her own battles. She finally has time and energy to focus on her photography, a lifelong ambition. But she wonders how her rediscovered passion can fit in with the life she’s made back home as a single mom. But when Hurricane Ingrid aims a steady eye at the Alabama coast, Jenna must make a decision that will change her family’s future, even as Betsy and Ty try to protect their beloved farm . . . and their hearts.
Praise for Hurricane Season:
“A poignant and heartfelt tale of sisterhood, motherhood, and marriage, Hurricane Season deftly examines the role that coming to terms with the past plays in creating a hopeful future. Readers will devour this story of the hurricanes—both literal and figurative—that shape our lives.” —Kristy Woodson Harvey, national bestselling author of Slightly South of Simple Full-length contemporary Southern fiction Stand-alone novel Includes discussion questions for book clubs

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Hurricane Season

by Nicole Melleby, Lauren K. Denton, Fernanda Melchor, Sonja Bentley Zant

The English-language debut of one of the most thrilling and accomplished young Mexican writers
Winner of the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute's Tanslation Prize
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the Internationaler Literaturpreis
New York Public Library Best Books of 2020
Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020
The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse has the whole village investigating the murder. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters―inners whom most people would write off as irredeemable―forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.
Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 or Faulkner’s novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world saturated with mythology and violence―real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more and more terrifying the deeper you explore it.

Copies

No copies available.

Hurricane Season

by Nicole Melleby, Lauren K. Denton, Fernanda Melchor, Sonja Bentley Zant

The English-language debut of one of the most thrilling and accomplished young Mexican writers

Longlisted for the National Book Award
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the Internationaler Literaturpreis
New York Public Library Best Books of 2020
Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020 The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse―by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals―propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.

Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence―real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

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Hurricane Season

by Nicole Melleby, Lauren K. Denton, Fernanda Melchor, Sonja Bentley Zant

Eloise Butts is still "waiting" at age 33. Living in Miami's South Beach, where being a virgin is highly unusual, Eloise finds herself strangely aware of her unique situation. But when she gets a chance to move to Italy for three months, she opens herself up to the complete possibilities of love for the very first time. When a dashing Italian man named Marco Maselli sweeps her off her feet, Eloise struggles to discover the difference between lust and love while remaining true to her self in the process. In the end, when what she thought was love blows in, blows up and blows out of her life, all that remains is who she is as a person. It's the story of holding on to a deeper sense of self-no matter how counter-culture or strange that may seem.

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Hurricane Season

by Nicole Melleby, Lauren K. Denton, Fernanda Melchor, Sonja Bentley Zant

“Fig Arnold is an original and irresistible heroine in a story full of hope, art, and love.” —R. J. Palacio, author of Wonder

"A thoughtful portrayal of mental illness with queer content that avoids coming-out clichés.” —Kirkus Reviews

For Fig’s dad, hurricane season brings the music.
For Fig, hurricane season brings the possibility of disaster.

Fig, a sixth grader, loves her dad and the home they share in a beachside town. She does not love the long months of hurricane season. Her father, a once-renowned piano player, sometimes goes looking for the music in the middle of a storm. Hurricane months bring unpredictable good and bad days. More than anything, Fig wants to see the world through her father’s eyes, so she takes an art class to experience life as an artist does. Then Fig’s dad shows up at school, confused and looking for her. Not only does the class not bring Fig closer to understanding him, it brings social services to their door.

As the walls start to fall around her, Fig is sure it’s up to her alone to solve her father’s problems and protect her family’s privacy. But with the help of her best friend, a cute girl at the library, and a surprisingly kind new neighbor, Fig learns she isn’t as alone as she once thought . . . and begins to compose her own definition of family.

Nicole Melleby’s Hurricane Season is a radiant and tender novel about taking risks and facing danger, about friendship and art, and about growing up and coming out. And more than anything else, it is a story about love—both its limits and its incredible healing power.

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