"A rich tale of healing, redemption, and social responsibility."--Publishers Weekly 

"Lyon gives readers a story rich in precise, gorgeous language that glows like a sword on the forge and cuts as deep. . . . Tragedies old and new weave a tiny Kentucky town into the center of the universe."--Booklist (starred review)

"The dialogue in this wonderful story is moving, often funny, and always true to life."--School Library Journal

"With her poet's pen, Lyon has fashioned as fine and moving a love story as you'll ever read, just about as strange and wonderful as life itself. Filled with passion, pain, and redemption, this novel is a classic."--Lee Smith

"With a love of language that comes from the heart of a people, George Ella Lyon has plunged right into the souls of a wide range of characters who are tender, human, funny and true."--Bobbie Ann Mason

"A compelling, skillfully told story. . . . Lyon's finest achievement."--Lexington Herald-Leader

"Lyon consistently reveals in her work an ability to render the peculiarities of the people and the places she knows best, while at the same time exploring concerns that lend her stories and poems universal appeal. The same is true of With a Hammer for My Heart, a powerful first novel that catapults Lyon into the ranks of other well-respected contemporary novelists."--Southern Register

George Ella Lyon is the award-winning author of more than thirty books for children and adults, including Borrowed Children, Mother to Tigers, Sonny's House of Spies, and Where I'm From: Where Poems Come From. She is also the editor of of the collection A Kentucky Christmas. Lyon lives in Lexington, Kentucky.