Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent

“The bare bones of Beth Kephart’s new story sound modern, but this bright, burning novel — intended for a young adult audience but powerful enough to engage any adult — is set in the Philadelphia of 1870. Using surprising period details and a gorgeous turn of phrase, Kephart has called forth an interesting time in our city’s history and made it live again for just a moment.”—Katie Haegele, Philadelphia Inquirer 
 
“One of Kephart’s gifts in her ongoing written exploration of Philadelphia is the capacity, and the willingness, to look on all that’s here with honesty, to allow for confusion and contradiction, for might and violence all at once. A writer does so by loving her characters, even the rotten ones, even the city so sour it might burn. And by bathing it, as only this one can, in fullness of breath.”—Nathaniel Popkin, Philly.com
 
“Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent shines as a novel about grief itself, suggesting that in thinking about what we miss, we keep what’s missing alive.”—Michelle Fost, Cleaver Magazine