Assessment:
Plot/Idea: This touching novel centers on a woman who is lonely and grieving over a lost daughter and a man who is homeless and desperate for a new start. The author effectively weaves their stories together, forming a gratifying narrative arc.
Prose: Schweighardt has a clear, polished prose style that brings the story to life.
Originality: The author writes empathetically about the experience of homelessness, adding an original element to the narrative.
Character/Execution: Lola and Ben emerge as unique and complex characters--both suffering due to circumstance beyond their control and searching for peace, solace, and dignity. Additional characters fill out the world of the story, providing authenticity and humanity.
Date Submitted: August 22, 2023
“This little book is a gem of tenderness as it looks at a hard-hitting reality. It brings to mind the expression, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ Yet it never preaches. It just quietly does what it should, and I found myself wishing fervently that everyone everywhere would read it and change the world.”
Kate Niles, author of The Basket Maker, “a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year,” and other titles.
"Hard luck, bad choices and tragedy stalk the characters of Under the Full Moon. So do love, compassion, and sometimes, a second chance. The story does not follow the cliched expectations. The characters, Lola and Ben, don't become friends or redeem one another. But the reader's appreciation of each character's journey is enhanced by the experiences of the other. This story is filled with heart, loss, and the fleeting triumph of good."
—Claudia H. Long, author of Our Lying Kin, Nine Tenths of the Law, and other novels
“Schweighardt skillfully tackles a rarely addressed theme in fiction through the character of Ben, someone who could be any one of us, successful in one moment and living on the streets in the next. Juxtaposed is Lola, a woman overwhelmed and fragmented by a traumatic event. We are moved by the humanity and vulnerability of these characters and thus we can have hope for them.”
--Phyllis M Skoy, author of A Turkish Trilolgy: What Survives, As They Are, and A Coup, and the memoir, Myopia.
