Lifestyles

“Folly Beach”: A Lowcountry Tale

Posted: 9/7/2011

“Folly Beach” is a book about more than mango sunsets and gentle ocean breezes. It tells a great love story.



Frank

(NAPSI)—When the heroine of Dorothea Benton Frank’s newest book returns to her home in Carolina’s Lowcountry, she learns that the pull of family is as powerful as the ocean tides and love can strike faster than lightning in summer.

With its sandy beaches and bohemian charms, surfers and suits alike consider Folly Beach to be one of South Carolina’s most historic and romantic spots.

In “FollyBeach” (William Morrow/HarperCollins), it is also the land of heroine Cate Cooper’s childhood, the place where all the ghosts of her past roam freely.

Cate never thought she’d wind up in a tiny cottage named the Porgy House on this lovely strip of coast. But circumstances have changed, thanks to her newly dead husband whose financial—and emotional—mendacity has left Cate homeless, broke and unmoored.

Yet Folly Beach holds more than just personal memories for Cate. There, she learns the story of Dorothy Heyward, artist, writer and colleague of composer George Gershwin. Heyward enjoyed the greatest moments of her life at Folly with her beloved husband, DuBose, author of “Porgy” and “Mamba’s Daughters.”

Frank was inspired to write “Folly Beach” after reading the papers of Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, whose life seemed to often intersect with her own.

“I ran across a birth certificate on which her name is ‘Dorothea’—my name—and letterhead that states she lived on Fifth and 12th in Manhattan—my old address—and that she was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club and so am I,” said Frank. “I began to wonder if Dorothea/Dorothy wasn’t trying to tell me something and if so, what was she trying to say?”

Frank reasoned that there was a story to tell. She decided to write one in which she could tell the world about the love between Dorothy and DuBose Heyward. “Theirs may be the most powerful love story of the Charleston Literary Renaissance,” she said.

The result is a book that readers describe as filled with the kind of irresistible charm, saucy wit and lush atmosphere that win Frank the devotion of fans and propel her books to best-sellerdom. It’s a tale of loss, acceptance, family and love.

To read an excerpt, go to www.DotFrank.com. To stay up to date with Frank, find her on Facebook.