The Heart of a Distant Forest

Retired professor Andrew Lachlan has returned to his family home on a lake in central Georgia to die. And yet he has never felt so alive, so ready to learn about the natural world around him. Having taught all his life, he is ready for solitude. But a young country boy, Willie Sullivan, disrupts Lachlan's search for order and rekindles memories he thought long dead.Lachlan also finds Callie McKenzie, a woman he loved years earlier, and they soon begin to see in each other reflections of the lives they once led. Lachlan's journal of his year by the lake leads him to a deeper understanding of himself and the world.

Philip Lee Williams is the author of eleven books, including The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset (Georgia) and Crossing Wildcat Ridge (Georgia). His most recent novel, A Distant Flame, is winner of the 2005 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. Williams lives with his family near Athens, Georgia.