Desert Daughter

Spanning three generations of women in a family with distressful father-daughter relationships, this story reflects on how one's father affects later choices in life and on the struggle to resolve childhood issues. When Linda Richardson returns to her girlhood home in the Desert Southwest after her father's death, she begins to uncover the reasons for her nonchalance about his passing. As she struggles to make sense of what should be a sad time for her, she sorts out the many steps taken to eliminate the emotional damage of a painful father-daughter relationship in order to move on with her life. She also sees the shadows cast over the lives of her mother and daughter by difficulties with male parental figures. In this episodic tale of three generations of women, the reader will discover how each woman finds the seeds of feminine strength within herself to transform hurts into healing and wistfulness into wisdom. Underlying the narrative is a journey of spiritual awakening, dramatized in a final scene that will remain with readers long after the book ends. --- "Desert Daughter is a unique and vividly descriptive novel about daughters who have been 'invisible' or neglected by their fathers and how that affects their ensuing relationships with men as well as their own creativity. Nancy Roeder's luminous descriptions of nature are contrasted with the subtlety of wounds that are often ignored as 'normal' occurrences, but which leave women passive and unable to own their worth. This book offers deep insight for anyone (men included) who has dealt with father-daughter issues, and it shows how women can transform, reclaim their strength and bloom." - Linda Schierse Leonard, Ph.D., author of The Wounded Woman: Healing the Father-Daughter Relationship and On The Way to the Wedding