Sophie Hegel is a shy New York lawyer from small-town Florence Arizona, known not for the Renaissance but for housing a large prison. She’s just graduated from Yale Law and landed her first job when, one evening she feels a fist-like ball at the base of her throat. Diagnosed with psychological condition Globus Hystericus, this “fist-ball” wreaks havoc, causing her difficulty eating, speaking, and eventually breathing. With a cast of characters that includes a pornographer father, a sister with a knack for getting knocked up by denizens of the town pen, a tough-talking fashion maven, a painter of male nudes, an eccentric Sing Sing-residing client and a bevy of privileged Manhattan attorneys and judges, Swallow is a dark comedy about the distance that can separate fathers and daughters, and about a young woman’s struggle to survive in a world of pedigreed professionals for which she has no preparation.
“Swallow … hooks you from the opening pages with its breathless urgency and captures what it’s like to live in NY now, with money worries and ambition and myriad obligations breathing down your neck, and none of it written in cutesy chick-lit’ry. So give it a try.” –Vanity Fair Online, James Wolcott, January 15, 2010
“Plank has a knack for combining philosophical opinions, hard-luck family stories, discount shopping triumphs, and gently slapstick humor into a book that makes readers laugh, think, and swallow hard in sympathy.” –ForeWord Reviews
“Tonya Plank has written a novel about a woman coming of age at thirty; about moral and psychological integrity, with strong sentiments on male/female relationships between father and daughters and the undercurrents that appear in love and social relationships within those dynamics. This is not just regional, women’s fiction – it transcends any genre. As the layers unravell like an onion, I fell into Sophie’s world most intently. Ms. Plank’s first novel is a brilliant show of even greater things to come. She is an author to watch and follow. I know her next novel will be even more brilliant than this one, if that is possible.” The Review Broads (emphasis in the original)
“I swallowed it up, no pun intended… The novel is very chatty and engaging… A great beach read.” –Gotham Gal (Books of the Moment sidebar)
“…As engaging as any book I have read. Although it does seem to be a little long at first, the character development is so appealing that once you start reading you find yourself eagerly anticipating what will come next…” –Examiner.com
“An entertaining pick for general fiction readers.” Midwest Book Review
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