2017 Next Generation Indie Awards: Finalist, General Fiction
2017 International Book Awards: Finalist, Women’s Lit
2017 Next Generation Indie Awards: Finalist, Chick Lit
“A globalized family tale of love, redemption, and healing, The Absence of Evelyn will challenge every reader’s understanding of what it truly means to love. Jackie Townsend’s staggering adventure proves that nothing – not time, heartbreak, distance or danger―stands a chance against the power of the heart.”
―Redbook
Newly divorced Rhonda, haunted by her sister Evelyn’s ghost, travels to an old palazzo in Rome to confront Marco, the man who stole her sister’s heart—only to find out he’s vanished in the wake of Evelyn’s death. Meanwhile, Rhonda’s nineteen-year-old daughter Olivia, adopted by Rhonda at birth, travels to the mysterious and lush waters of northern Vietnam, where she’s been summoned by the missing Marco—a man she only knows from her parents’ whispers, a man she has never met or seen.
Soon, truths are exposed and lives unraveled, and the real journey begins. Four lives in all, spanning three continents, are now bound together in an unfathomable way—and they tell a powerful story about love in all its incarnations, filial and amorous, healing and destructive.
Author: Jackie Townsend
Publication Date: April 4, 2017