The Tenderest of Strings [Paperback]

In search of a new life, Reuben and Ardith Rosenfeld and their two children move from Chicago to the small town of Welton, Colorado, looking for all the hope that the burgeoning West has to offer—its abundance of jobs, space, sunshine, prosperity, and the promise of reinvention. Reuben, a former copyeditor at the Chicago Tribune, purchases the local town paper, the Welton Sentinel. Ardith stays home and copes with the task of fixing up an older house, which suffers such disrepair that on Halloween it’s mistaken for part of a haunted house tour. Teenaged Harry continues his life as a troubled loner, skipping school and losing his tooth in a mysterious encounter. Meanwhile, Reuben, unaware that Ardith is having an affair, worries about his wife’s growing unhappiness and distance from the family. One night, after a cookout at some friends’ dairy farm, a fatal hit-and-run occurs that shocks the community, exposes a secret, and begins to rip apart the Rosenfeld family. The Tenderest of Strings is a riveting, full-hearted story of what it takes to survive as a family in a small Western town that beckons from afar but will put its newcomers to the test of their lives."What can we give up to save that which we cherish most? This is one of the questions posed by this absolutely gripping novel of a family on the verge of breaking apart. The characters here are as vivid and real as people we know in life . . . and just as captivating and mysterious. I was enthralled." —Ann Packer, author ofThe Dive From Clausen’s Pier

 "We need more novels likeThe Tenderest of Strings, realistic but sympathetic depictions of ordinary men, women, and children trying to get through their days and nights with their dignity intact. Because Steven Schwartz’s characters are people we are sure to care about, we’re likely to turn this novel’s pages as quickly as we would a thriller. But inThe Tenderesl¡