By the time Sylvia Richardson is eighteen, she has buried her parents; given birth to a daughter; and become a widow. It is 1942, and World War II has destroyed Sylvia’s dream of dancing in red high heels through life to the melody of a Hank Snow record. Instead, she is raising her daughter, Sassy, alone in the coal mining town she vowed to leave behind.

Lee Smith, author of twelve novels and four collections of short stories including Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger had this to say. “From its perfect first paragraph straight through to its hard-won resolution, Mama’s Shoes is an absolutely wonderful novel, its setting a beautifully realized small Appalachian coal town, its characters so vivid they’re practically jumping off the page. There’s conflict aplenty here too – between mother and daughter, truth and lies, rich and poor, past and present – as thirteen year old Sassy tries to determine the truth of who she really is.”

     Spanning twenty years, Mama’s Shoesis a haunting tale of love, despair, and forgiveness as a cadence of female voices weaves a spell of mountain lore and secrets, defines family as more than blood kin, and proves second chances can bring happiness.

     Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot said, “In Mama’s Shoes, immensely talented debut novelist, Rebecca Elswick weaves an intriguing tale of buried secrets, at times both haunting and humorous, with a cast of strong Southern women so real that I could almost hear them speaking to me.”

Lee Smith, author of twelve novels and four collections of short stories including Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger had this to say. “From its perfect first paragraph straight through to its hard-won resolution, Mama’s Shoes is an absolutely wonderful novel, its setting a beautifully realized small Appalachian coal town, its characters so vivid they’re practically jumping off the page. There’s conflict aplenty here too – between mother and daughter, truth and lies, rich and poor, past and present – as thirteen year old Sassy tries to determine the truth of who she really is.”

Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot said, “In Mama’s Shoes, immensely talented debut novelist, Rebecca Elswick weaves an intriguing tale of buried secrets, at times both haunting and humorous, with a cast of strong Southern women so real that I could almost hear them speaking to me.”