As the Sycamore Grows

Kirkus Review editors Top 100 Small Press/Indie Books of 2023 A cabin behind a padlocked gate. No power. No phone. Only Revelation and a .38. A true story of abuse, loss, redemption, and hope that winds from south Texas to a sycamore tree in Tennessee. Mike escaped his father‘s fists, but years later glimpsed himself in his father‘s casket. Ginger named the sycamore tree for her son, Trent. It grew slowly like independence. This is Ginger‘s story and Mike‘s, yet it didn‘t begin with them. Journalist Jennie Miller Helderman‘s harrowing narrative takes the listener inside Ginger and Mike‘s world. She interviewed both the abuse survivor, her abuser, family members, friends, and others who knew the couple. In this special, updated edition, Helderman revisits what has happened to Ginger in the interim and offers resources for those with violent partners. During Covid-19, cases escalated dramatically, because isolation from friends and family is one of the main tools in an abuser‘s arsenal of weapons.