What on earth is wrong with Sarah?

JOSHUA PEELER, a shy, lonely 16 year old youth growing up in the Bronx, possesses a healthy respect for fate and its inevitability, but he never thinks much about it relative to his own life. Little does he know that fate is about to reveal itself to him, and in a way that would forever change the direction of his life. The setting is the Bronx, New York; the year, 1972. Joshua's asleep in his bed when he hears the name of a girl, Sarah, in a dream. Months later, through a fateful set of occurrences, he meets a beautiful girl whose name, surprisingly, is Sarah.

SARAH is 16 years old and lives with her father, Frank Edwards, a domineering brute of a man whose wife walked out on him years earlier. Her leaving, and his being forced to raise their daughter alone in a Bronx project, fuels his bitterness. As a consequence, he takes much of his frustrations out on Sarah. Frank's bizarre behavior coupled with the oppressive circumstances of life at home, are a constant source of embarrassment for Sarah. A straight-A student, she's ostracized by most of her peers who she views as pathetic ghetto lifers. A self-described agnostic as well, she's methodically mapped out a future that doesn't include any of those things which she has come to loathe. Her steadfast arrogance on the matter, can't imagine anything derailing her life's goal. The one thing she hadn't counted on was love, and it blossoms quickly between her and Joshua as they each discover a commonality in each other's parochial existence. They're soon rendezvousing in secret, and against the wishes of her father. Sarah's happier than she's ever been. Then something horrific happens and in an instant, her life is turned upside down.

THE JOSHUA TREE, a novel written by first-time author, L. Steven Rencher, examines the tenuous threads of a young woman on the brink, the lengths that a committed husband and father will go to save his family, and the restorative power of love and faith when all else fails.

The story begins in the south Bronx, New York in the year 1972 and spans the next several years in the lives of Joshua and Sarah, taking the reader along on a journey of discovery, heartbreak and revelation. The author, a lifelong New Yorker himself, knows the Bronx and the period intimately, and faithfully depicts, in descriptive and nostalgic details, the essence of the era complete with the deuce-and-a-quarter’s, afros, and the old school love ballads that made the ‘70s memorable.

“The Joshua Tree” is a sweeping urban love story with strong characters, and honest portrayals that are sure to please fans of both romance and drama alike.

THE JOSHUA TREE
By L. Steven Rencher
On Sale May 1, 2005
Price: $18.95 U.S. / $21.00 Can.
ISBN: 0-9763434-0-0
Trade Paperback, 6 x 9, 512 pages
Genre: Urban Contemporary / Family Saga
Author’s Website: www.LStevenRencher.com
Published by: Frayer & Williams Publishing, P.O. Box 524, Florida, New York 10921