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Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Biography

Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Elizabeth Winthrop’s novels include CONVICTION, THE MERCY SEAT, FIREWORKS, DECEMBER and THE WHY OF THINGS. She was the recipient of the Schaeffer Writing Fellowship at the University of California at Irvine where she earned her MFA. She lives with her husband and daughter in Massachusetts, where she is Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Endicott College.

Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Books by Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Conviction
by Elizabeth H. Winthrop - Fiction

In the aftermath of 9/11, 11-year-old Maggie’s first instinct was rage. But when her parents took her to an open house at a mosque, she glimpsed a faith of beauty and peace --- and over time came to embrace Islam as her own. A decade later, Maggie has left Maine for the life in New York she always dreamed of. Yet her joy is shadowed by images from Syria: civilians starving, children buried under rubble. Then she meets Ahmet, the handsome and headstrong son of a neighborhood baker. Ahmet leaves his life behind to join a new rebel group emerging in Syria, electrified by its sweeping vision to fight Assad and create a Muslim utopia. The group is ISIS. Maggie slowly gleans the brutal nature of the group she has joined, one that does not share her vision of Islam.

The Mercy Seat
by Elizabeth H. Winthrop - Fiction, Historical Fiction

On the eve of his execution, 18-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office, the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets.