<div><b>A wide-eyed redhead finds her true calling as a Christian evangelist in a broken-down town in Southwest Texas</b><BR>A large redheaded girl from a small East Texas town, Principia Martindale is fairly directionless. But she finds purpose at Hillister Baptist College. Principia was born to be a missionary, she realizes, and her religious fervor wins her a bus ticket to the pathetic West Texas ghost town of Judson, population fifteen. Upon arrival, her days are spent preaching the gospel, baptizing children with premoistened towelettes (water, holy or otherwise, is scarce in Judson), and serving up tortillas as communion wafers.<BR>Judson is a dying town, but it boasts one considerable attraction: the image of Jesus Christ has appeared on a rusted screen door. An ever-increasing stream of pilgrims is arriving daily in tiny Judson, and the travelers find themselves as drawn to Principia as to the apparition. But fame was never part of Principia Martindale&rsquo;s grand plan. She finds her immortal soul in jeopardy in an ongoing struggle with Satan and his most insidious work: crass boomtown commercialism. Her battle against temptation drives this comic masterpiece from the author of <i>Splendora</i>.</div>

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Principia Martindale

<div><b>The hilarious chronicle of the McAlister clan, a collection of bickering southern eccentrics whose family history is a parade of missteps, mishaps, and certifiable insanity</b><BR>In the later years of her life, widow and grandmother Pearl decides to return to East Texas and move in with her sister, Wanda Gay&mdash;despite the fact that the two have never agreed on anything. (It is no wonder that brother Frank preferred the relative quiet of a prison cell.) A particular bone of contention seems to be the perceived saintliness or demonic nature of their late mother, Eugenia Fane. An unbending, overbearing, man-hating matriarch who not-so-stoically endured her own mother, Eugenia set a standard that the McAlister women would find nearly impossible&mdash;and quite mad&mdash;to try to live up to. Through the disputed remembrances, distortions, and wound saltings of Wanda Gay and Pearl, the twisted personal history of the McAlister dynasty comes to light, revealing what it is exactly that makes a family endure in spite of itself.<BR>Like Faulkner in a funhouse, in <i>Mother of Pearl</i>, acclaimed author Edward Swift (<i>Splendora</i>) gives readers an extraordinary Southern gothic tale filled with unbridled dark humor, outrageous incidents, and wildly unforgettable characters.</div>

Mother of Pearl

<div><b>The misadventures of a motley group of artists making their way in New York City</b><BR>A misfit collection of wannabes, has-beens, and never-weres, the Christopher Park Regulars gather frequently in the heart of New York&rsquo;s Greenwich Village. Here they share their hopes, dreams, and memories (and in the case of the abnormally obsessed C.C. Wake, an irrational fear of earthquakes), as they wait to become famous.<BR>Andrew T. Andrews left a fancy home, job, and wife behind to struggle downtown as a starving writer and has now almost finished his third book on his best subject: himself. Maria la Hija de Jes&uacute;s has also come a long way from where she started&mdash;when she was a he&mdash;to become a bona fide off-off Broadway star . . . when she isn&rsquo;t spending time in a senior citizen home taking the residents on fantasy excursions to Europe. And then there&rsquo;s the rice cereal heir, the High Fiber Man, watching helplessly in horror as his mother fritters away his inheritance.<BR>Author Edward Swift&rsquo;s love of endearing eccentrics, rebels, and oddballs has been well documented in such acclaimed novels as <i>Splendora</i>,<i> Principia Martindale</i>, and <i>A Place with Promise</i>. Now he brings the sideshow from the dust of East Texas to the hustle and bustle of New York City, chronicling the struggles of his irrepressible Regulars in a story that is funny, sad, and totally outrageous.</div>

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The Christopher Park Regulars

<div><B>In this &ldquo;delightful and bizarre&rdquo; novel, Clarissa Spellbinder spins the yarn of her truly unbelievable&mdash;and completely unverified&mdash;life (<I>The Boston Globe</I>).</B><BR />  Miss Clarissa Spellbinder has lived a truly astonishing life . . . or so she tells us. Her father was the intrepid adventurer Lord Andrew Spellbinder and her mother, the fiery Latin songbird Amelita de la Luna, who traveled the world and escaped almost certain death on numerous occasions. Miss Spellbinder relates their spectacular exploits to the patrons of the Back Door Bar That Once Faced the Sea on the fantastical island of Moly&mdash;though her listeners seem far more interested in hearing about the misadventures (of the sexual variety, mainly) of Clarissa&rsquo;s enormous neighbor, the former carnival circuit star Fat Satsuma Johnson, a.k.a. the Black Queen of the Atchafalaya, a.k.a. the pie-eating queen of southern Louisiana. Miss Spellbinder, of course, is more than happy to oblige, since all her stories serve as ammunition in her ongoing battle against &ldquo;the disease of the literal minded.&rdquo; What matters most, she tells us, is a unique point of view, for without one, &ldquo;you have no pinnacle on which to stand and express yourself.&rdquo;<BR /> Edward Swift (<I>Splendora</I>) indulges readers with a novel unlike anything they have read before, an epic voyage through the outrageous history, real and imagined, of Miss Clarissa Spellbinder. It is a journey that may entail a certain suspension of disbelief&mdash;but afterward, the world will look very different. </div>

Miss Spellbinder's Point of View

<div><b>The new librarian in the tiny town of Splendora, Texas, has a big secret</b><BR>A stunning and stylish femme fatale named Miss Jessie Gatewood has arrived in the dusty hamlet of Splendora. Miss Jessie is the new town librarian&mdash;but she has much bigger plans than just shelving books. She intends to give the town and its people a much-needed makeover. But even as she is influencing the fashion sense of the local ladies&mdash;and winning the heart of the lovesick Brother Leggett, Splendora&rsquo;s Baptist minister&mdash;a surprising plan for vengeance occupies the fabulous Miss Gatewood&rsquo;s mind.<BR>In Edward Swift&rsquo;s provocative, hilarious first novel, a small town is turned upside down by a new arrival&mdash;and a shocking return.</div>

Splendora

<div><b>The magical saga of a remarkable family undone by madness, fate, and politics, and a dutiful daughter&rsquo;s lifelong pursuit of righteous retribution</b><BR>Josefina Esperon&rsquo;s parents came to Latin America together, but with separate missions. Her father, Dr. Alejandro Esperon, sought to better humankind by harnessing the curative powers of tropical plants. His wife, the beautiful, pious, and quite mad Eufemia, came seeking sainthood. Josefina enjoyed a privileged childhood of plenty in a forty-three-room former convent, never lacking for companionship in a home filled with her father&rsquo;s mistresses, including Josefina&rsquo;s favorite, the great actress Carlota Montejo. But her idyll was undone when the vicious Serrano family seized power in paradise, and almost overnight, everything and everyone Josefina loved was ruthlessly destroyed. Now, at age eighty-two, having become wealthy and famous, Josefina is finally ready to enjoy what she has worked her entire life to achieve: revenge.<BR>A masterwork of magical realism from the acclaimed author of <i>Splendora</i>, Edward Swift&rsquo;s <i>The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint </i>is a novel infused with color, mystery, and wonder. It is a tale brimming with tragic incident and triumphant resolution that stands proudly alongside the touchstone works of the genre.</div>

The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint

<div><b>The magical multigenerational saga of an unforgettable Texas family</b><BR>At the turn of the twentieth century, Isaac Overstreet goes looking for a bride and finds Elizabeth &ldquo;Bessie&rdquo; Treadway standing in the middle of the Sabine River. Leaving her sisters without explanation, carrying her three pet cranes, Bessie slips into Isaac&rsquo;s boat and returns with him to Camp Ruby&mdash;a tiny backwoods East Texas community too humble to be called a real town.<BR>In Isaac&rsquo;s broken-down shack, they start a family together. First come the twin daughters, the Ruby-Jewels, followed by Zeda Earl, always sour and dissatisfied with the life she has been born into.<BR>For all of Zeda Earl&rsquo;s ennui, there is magic on the shores of the Sabine, where angels fish and the seriously deranged sometimes bring about miracles. For the Overstreets and their eccentric friends and neighbors, every day in Camp Ruby holds new wonder&mdash;until the simple ways they have come to rely on are threatened by a dangerous unwanted interloper called progress.<BR>Edward Swift, the acclaimed author of <i>Splendora </i>and<i> Principia Martindale</i>, brings us a fable for our time&mdash;a wondrous tale of family and community, rich in color and imagination and suffused with everyday magic.</div>

Edward Swift
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Books By Edward Swift (7 Books)

Principia Martindale

Mother of Pearl

The Christopher Park Regulars

Miss Spellbinder's Point of View

Splendora

The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint

A Place with Promise

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