Tessa’s Heart by Jackie Lewis

"Funny, poignant, sad, and exhilarating…" — An Honorable Mention from the Eric Hoffer Award.

"The elements of Southern Gothic literature embedded in this novel are delightful, particularly in the story’s religious aspects … with the type of eccentric humor known from writers such as Larry Brown, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor …" — The US Review of Books

"A compelling, unpredictable, and poignant story …" — Kirkus Reviews

Hilarious and heartbreaking, Tessa’s Heart is a coming of age story about a young girl trying to find her place in the world.

It’s 1952, and in the small town of Yoakum, Texas, Tessa Louise Carter – a quirky, sassy, back-talking nine-year-old – finds herself torn between her deeply religious but foul-mouthed grandmother, and her beautiful bed-hopping mother.

Tessa is without friends and takes solace from talking with the ghosts of her dead great-grandmother and great-aunt – which doesn’t sit well with her mother or grandmother.

What Tessa wants – and needs – more than anything, is a father figure, but the men her mother brings home are either mean and cruel, or are totally uninterested in the musings of a nine-year-old. When the mother becomes pregnant by the local pastor, he flees, and out of convenience she marries yet another of her men friends. Tessa is miserable and is sent back to live with her grandmother.

When Tessa finds a human skeleton, half-buried in the mud outside her grandmother’s home, the family’s ghastly dark secret is revealed. Tessa becomes haunted by the spirit of her great-grandfather, which won’t leave her alone – but her nightmare is only just beginning…