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paper 0-9840429-6-2 $15.95, Apr 13, Available
198 pp
5.5 x 8.5
"[A] bright, burning novel-- intended for a young adult audience but powerful enough to engage any adult is set in the Philadelphia of 1870. Using surprising period details and a gorgeous turn of phrase, Kephart has called forth an interesting time in our city's history and made it live again for just a moment.... While many historical novels, especially those for younger readers, can come across as corny or costumey, this one rings true, its language seeming to have been composed during the era it describes.... These people feel real, and we have no trouble imagining them living out their dramas just as painfully and joyously as we do ours, 100 or more years before we were born."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Flavored by the oddities of historic personalities and facts, Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent is set in Bush Hill, Philadelphia, 1871—home to the Baldwin Locomotive Works and a massive, gothic prison. Acclaimed writer Beth Kephart captures the rhythms and smells of an extraordinary era as William Quinn and his Ma, Essie, grapple with life among terrible accidents, miraculous escapes, and shams masquerading as truth.
Distributed by Temple University Press for the New City Community Press
"Playing masterfully with words, knitting them into new and deliciously expressive forms, Kephart’s story is one of loss and then redemption.... Like the very best of historical fiction, this effort combines a timeless tale with a vividly recreated, fascinating world. An outstanding and ultimately life-affirming tale."
Kirkus Review
"One pleasure of Beth Kephart’s lively new historical Philadelphia novel is the strong fit of the writer’s project and the story she tells.... Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent shines as a novel about grief itself, suggesting that in thinking about what we miss, we keep what’s missing alive."
Cleaver Magazine
"Bush Hill comes to life in the hands of Kephart, who clearly loves her subject, even the dark alleys and the unsavory places like Cherry Hill Penitentiary.... Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent by Beth Kephart, illustrated by William Sulit, is splendid and will leave readers wanting even more."
Savvy Verse & Wit
Beth Kephart teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the award-winning author of fifteen books, including Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River (Temple) and Dangerous Neighbors.
Philadelphia Region
Literature and Drama
History
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