Andrea Gabriel – Author/Illustrator
Available Now: Shepherd’s Derelict
(writing as A.G. Bennett)
What does it take to build a life from broken pieces? For Michelle Shepherd, the question is essential. On the foundations of an erratic and sometimes violent childhood, Michelle has carved out tentative success as an artist in British Columbia while caretaking her elderly father and his expat Vietnam war buddies. Michelle’s father begins drinking and making risky, possibly criminal choices just as she falls in love with a woman named Celeste—two situations for which she has little adult experience and few skills. When grisly evidence of a crime washes up beneath her remote cabin home, Michelle is convinced of her father’s guilt and is forced to a reckoning with family secrets—some she’s kept from others, and some she’s kept from herself. Access to the past opens up new possibilities but also a minefield of difficult choices.
An atmospheric novel firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest, Shepherd’s Derelict is a portrait of a troubled found family and the sacrifices we make for love.
About Andrea Gabriel
Andrea Gabriel is an author & illustrator whose work, both for children and adults, is deeply rooted in her love for the natural world. She has illustrated more than ten books for the children’s trade market and written several more. Her books have been published by Charlesbridge, Albert Whitman and Co., Dawn Publications, Sasquatch Books, and Arbordale. She has published for the adult market under the name A.G. Bennett. She lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, with her family of two and four-footed creatures.
