Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125558 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Released on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this debut faith-based novel, DeMuth transports readers to the hot East Texas town that is nine-year-old Mara's home. Amid the red dirt and pecan trees, Mara struggles to find her way through a painful and mysterious family situation. Who were her parents? Is her aunt Elma really her aunt-and does Elma really have a tumor? What will happen to her if her aunt dies? The pain in Mara's life multiplies when she meets General, the teenage neighbor who repeatedly rapes her, threatening her life if she tells anyone. DeMuth captures the horrific situation-from Mara's inability to keep her body from shaking to her determination to watch the tree limbs to keep her mind off of what is going on-while providing hope of redemption and healing. Her characters are expertly drawn, and encompass meanness, evil, great kindness and the confusion of generally good people who don't know how to handle what life has given them. Christian themes are woven throughout as a natural expression of the characters and situation. Readers may be surprised at the dark subject matter, but this book will appeal to many readers both as a thoughtful, powerful reflection on a difficult topic and as a compelling story.
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From the Back Cover

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Watching Tree Limbs...A Story You Won't Forget!
Mary DeMuth calls her blog Relevant Prose, and this is a more than apt description of her debut fiction novel, Watching Tree Limbs. Mary's strong voice along with equally strong characterizations drew me in immediately. Written from the perspective of the nine-year-old protagnoist, Mara, you feel her pain and want to reach into the pages and make things right for her. Shake the adults in her life and say "Don't you see what you are doing to this child?". Yet the only One who can make things right for Mara is God and God does reach in and bring people to Mara that point her to Him. You will fall in love with Camilla, Mara's rhyming and all-knowing best friend; Denim, the mysterious man on the radio who wants to make things right in the small East Texas town of Burl; and Zady, the housekeeper/surrogate mother that God uses most of all to shows her His love. This is a book I will long remember, days after reading the last sentence.

A classic in the making!
When I received a copy of this book I made the mistake of starting it before I had met some of my most pressing deadlines. I am now playing "catch-up" with those deadlines because once I started reading WATCHING THE TREE LIMBS I couldn't stop until I was done. Not only is this a captivating and moving story, but the writing is exquisite. In this modern age of publishing where selling platforms often take precedence over writing ability, it's exciting to find someone who is a writer first, an author second. Mary's heart so obviously "feels" her words before she pens them that reading her work is akin to listening to a perfectly orchestrated symphony. Thank you, Mary, for one of the best reads I've had in a very long time!

Grace lighting dark places
In the tradition of "Secret Life of Bees" or "Peace Like a River", Ms. DeMuth introduces a young character's journey and invites us inside her skin. We feel the heat of the Texas sun, the pain of abuse, the longing for connection and family. Even though the subject matter is truthfully tough, each chapter is infused with grace. The writing is lyrical and hopeful even when confronting brutal realities. The story deepened my compassion for children who suffer in silence and reminded me that although there aren't always easy answers one person's acts of love can make a difference.