Shards of Shell

Shelby's life isn't glamorous, but it is predictable -- and that's the way she likes it. A survivor of her father's violence, she has spent a lifetime creating a safe existence devoid of dependence. But her carefully managed world begins to fracture when, under staggering circumstances, she becomes a single mother to four-year old Shayla. In a drastic attempt to escape her childhood's influence, Shelby moves to Germany, but she quickly discovers how intimately linked memory and healing are -- and how honestly she must scrutinize her past in order to aspire to a richer future. As she juggles a new job, a new culture, a new daughter, and the attentions of an enterprising man, Shelby's fresh start becomes a quest for the courage to be not only a survivor, but a prevailer. The story unfolds simultaneously in the present and the past and is alive with deeply human characters, as winsome as they are flawed. Told from Shelby s unflinching and candid point of view, Shards of Shell is a witty, yet profoundly affecting novel about the ravages of abuse and the aftermath of survival. For further information: www.michelephoenix.com