One Summer in Arkansas

A riveting tale of two families, intersecting across generations, steeped in the bittersweet legacy of the South. A black youth has drowned under mysterious circumstances at a city park and Lee Addison, just out of law school and back home in Arkansas for the summer, is assigned to the legal defense team. Torn between two cultures and two women, he is tested when tragedy strikes his own family.

This is a story of place, in the tradition of Southern fiction, with vivid images of Arkansas and the values of small-town life. It is 1990, the stock markets are soaring and Lee Addison is on a fast track to success in Silicon Valley. Just out of law school with a job lined up at one of the best firms in the Bay Area, he is positioned to join the ranks of young elites who will shape the 21st century. But standing between him and his shining future is a promise to his mother to spend the summer back home in Riverton, Arkansas. He is unprepared for the siren pull his hometown still holds on his heart, as he grapples with his sister’s troubled adolescence, ethical questions relating to the drowning death of a black youth and the weight of his ancestral legacy. To make matters worse, the allure of a rekindled relationship with Annie Rayburn threatens to disrupt his carefully planned future. It is a tale of crisis and survival and the universal struggle to tap into values that will hold fast against the uncertainties of time.

Marcia Kemp Sterling practiced law in Silicon Valley before turning to writing. With degrees from Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School, she has been a newspaper reporter, high school teacher, law firm partner and software company general counsel. She grew up in Texarkana, Arkansas and lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.