Nancy Wilkens

When Apples Fall Nancy Wilkens

"... it wasn't the secrets I could tell her that worried the grownups. It was the ones that Aunt Colleen could share with me that terrified them to the quick ... she took me to her bedroom and taught me the real names of all the naughty body parts ... proceeded to remove her clothes and point out each unmentionable area as casually as you check off items on a grocery list. Worst of all, she made me recite the names back and spell them out as if we were judge and contestant in an obscene spelling bee." When Apples Fall follows ten-year-old Gerri Moran's struggle to survive. Her father has affairs, her mother is driven to fits of jealousy, and her crazy aunt threatens to reveal secrets others want hidden. As her family implodes around her, she is left to wonder: what if the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? "When Apples Fall is a startling and powerful debut novel. This perceptive book is not for the faint-hearted. The author eschews any 'feel good' factor in pursuit of the harsh realities of human existence, encapsulated in an unexpected climactic ending that pulls no punches and leaves the reader reeling." -A. R. Homer, bestselling author of The Sobs of Autumn's Violins