A Cleft in the World - by Elizabeth Sumner Wafler (Paperback)

About the Book

Agoraphobic French professor Georgie Bricker hasn't left the environs of the small women's college where she teaches in years--but when financial scandal brings both the possibility of the school's closure and her first love to her front door, the life she's meticulously tended is abruptly upended.

Book Synopsis

French professor Georgie Bricker hasn't poked a toe outside Virginia's Willa Cather College for women in two decades. She realizes the irony: she's working to shape her students into world leaders even as PTSD-induced agoraphobia, a result of trauma she suffered as a girl, keeps her prisoner on a tiny college campus. She tells herself her life is fine. Yet on her forty-ninth birthday, she wishes for something extraordinary.

Georgie is shattered to learn that her sanctuary is heavily in debt. While she scrambles to rescue the French department, her first love, Truman Parker, arrives to serve as a financial consultant to the school. By day, Georgie works as faculty liaison to his committee. By night, she's a moth to his porch light.

When the college announces it will shutter, Georgie and fiercely independent Laurel Cross, the student who's closest to Georgie's heart, organize a rally to save it. Between her rekindled love for Truman and Laurel becoming the daughter she never had, her wish for the extraordinary seems to have been granted. But the pivotal rally forces Georgie into the bigger, unsheltered world, where she must confront her final fears--or forfeit her chance for emotional freedom and a fulfilling new life.

Review Quotes

2023 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Women's Fiction

"An engaging, feel-good love story with plenty of plot twists."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A heart-warming story of female empowerment and love, with--hurrah!--a middle-aged heroine to root for."
--Erica Bauermeister, New York Times best-selling author of The Scent Keeper and The School of Essential Ingredients

"In this suspenseful, exuberant story, nothing is predictable, but nothing is impossible."
--Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Deep End of the Ocean

"A Cleft in the World serves up Southern charm with a quirky main character, combining page-turning intrigue in a small college town with a long-lost love story. The result is a novel that keeps you guessing but has you cheering for a win."
--Kathryn Dodson, author of Tequila Midnight and President of the Good Book Collective

"A Cleft in the World showcases a woman's journey to push past her fears and become the person she's always wanted to be. Wafler creates a visual world that is beautifully written with well-developed characters. This story will leave you smiling and missing the characters long after you close the book."
--Leslie A. Rasmussen, author of After Happily Ever After

"A heartwarming, hopeful story with glorious prose and inspiring characters."
--Dara Levan, author of It Could Be Worse and host of the Every Soul Has a Story podcast