Inspiration for One Summer in Savannah stems from the 2015 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting. Days after that terrible tragedy, some of the survivors and relatives of those killed walked into a South Carolina courtroom and forgave the shooter. At that moment, I realized I knew nothing about forgiveness. I assumed that there were crimes, acts, that were unforgivable. But when they forgave him, they challenged me to look inward and create my own definition of forgiveness, and I knew then that I wanted to explore that by writing a book that challenged readers on what they
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