About Drawn from Life by Sarah P. Blanchard:
Emma Harnett, 19, lives in western North Carolina with her volatile cousin Lucy, a frustrated artist with an alcoholic mother. When Lucy’s mother disappears unexpectedly, Lucy flies into a rage, bullying and injuring Emma.
Days later, they argue about who should drive down the mountain for food and supplies: Emma with a broken collarbone; or Lucy, who might be drunk. Their car crashes and three people die. Emma barely survives. Lucy, uninvolved and uninjured, vanishes.
Eight years later, Emma finds peace and purpose as bookkeeper and model for her deceased uncle’s legacy project, Stonefall Art Center. She still struggles with night terrors, physical pain, a speech impairment, memory loss, and the shame of an accidental killer.
Lucy returns, bringing chaos and needing money. Emma decides to bargain with her prodigal cousin: money, for truth about the crash.
Tensions escalate after vandalism at the art center, and suspicion falls on Lucy as Emma tries to learn whether the attacks are related to the crash.
A compassionate detective helps Emma recall fragments of memory. Was Lucy the driver, not her? The investigations require Emma to find courage and a new voice.
Another person may hold a key: Chaz, the son of the woman who died in the crash. An awkward foster-care kid, he’s Stonefall’s new handyman. He keeps a close eye on Emma, whom he remembers from childhood.
When Emma’s questions come too close to the truth, Lucy makes plans to remove Emma from Stonefall.
Emma finally fights back, and in the “accident” that Lucy has orchestrated, it’s she—not Emma—who falls.
With nothing left to lose, Lyssa finally shares the story that absolves Emma of guilt in the long-ago crash. Emma also learns how Chaz, the boy in the background, helped save her life.
Throughout, help comes from unexpected sources: the family lawyer, keeper of family secrets; a miniature schnauzer named for a notorious pirate; and of course the sympathetic detective who helps Emma find her refuge—and perhaps a chance at love.
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Author Bio:
Born and raised on what used to be a dairy-and-horse farm in North Stamford, Sarah emigrated to the northeastern corner of Connecticut after acquiring her BA at UConn. She then lived for several years in Hawaii and eventually western North Carolina, where her debut novel Drawn from Life and many of her short stories are set.
Rural life and the natural world are strong influences in Sarah’s work, along with the writings of Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Frazier, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ron Rash.
For five years, Sarah taught writing and communications at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. She also taught fiction writing in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.
After writing three non-fiction books on horse training, she turned her attention to poetry and fiction. Several of her works have been published and in 2021 she was a finalist for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. In her writing, Sarah creates compassionate characters who believe they must battle their demons alone, and antagonists who think they have nothing left to lose.
Sarah and her husband Rich now split their time between North Carolina and Connecticut.