Do you miss elegant writing, long for more from writers who, with just one sentence transport you to a place of pleasure so profound you wish it would never end. If you do, this month’s book, South Of Broad will be an experience in reading lyrical language you won’t ever forget.

Written by Pat Conroy, this novel is about friendship, family, and secrets. It is about growth and what can be survived through love, determination and loyalty and much more. In A Conroy novel, place and roots are characters themselves. The players on this stage know the pain of broken hearts, lost dreams and the changes wrought by marriage and choices they could never know will be necessary.

Leo King is the victim of a tragedy which shook not just his family but the city of Charleston, South Carolina to its core. It is often said older people dream for the generations to come. That hope shattered when Leo’s older brother Steve chose to end his life at the age of 10.

If you lost the person you looked to for love and meaning, what would you do. For a while, the King family falls apart and never goes on quite as before. After therapy and years of grief, a healing of sorts begins as it inevitably will.

South Of Broad is the story of what happens to Leo King and a group of friends from the time of the 60’s racial upheaval to 1989 and the Aids crisis. We come to know these friends, their beginnings, loves, loyalties, and jealousies. What happens when friendship is tested? Would you make the same choices they make? How is class affected by time and place? In a powerful novel that evokes the beauty of the South as few can, Conroy will make you squirm and ask where you stand as these characters struggle to find their place in the complicated land of friendship and love.

I hope you will join us for a thought-provoking discussion of this beautiful novel during the next Romance group discussion. Below you will find the description and download information from the Bard Site as well as book jacket information from South of Broad followed by details about how you can attend and be a part of our next meeting.

South of Broad
Conroy, Pat. Read by David Hartley-Margolin. Reading time 20 hours 42 minutes.
Human Relationships
Charleston, South Carolina; 1960s. Lonely, troubled Leo and several other high school students form an unlikely but close-knit friendship. They endure crises and successes until their loyalty is put to a final test two decades later, in San Francisco. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2009.
Download South of Broad, DB69381