St. Louis, MO -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/20/2014 -- St. Louis, MO – In a ‘room-sized’ slush pile, Anne Steinberg’s unsolicited manuscript sat with the others, between piles and piles of paper. Miraculously, in 1994, an editor fished Steinberg’s novel out of the detritus and Headline Review in London published ‘Manroot’, calling it “an important first novel”.

‘Manroot’ went on to be included in Headline Review’s “Fiction Without Frontiers”, alongside stories by Margaret Atwood, Iain Banks, William Gibson, Peter Hoeg, Roddy Doyle and E. Anne Proulx. It was an auspicious beginning to a long and varied career for Anne Steinberg, who went on to write four other novels, as well as co-authoring ‘The Fence’ with her grandson, Nicholas Reuel Tolkien.

‘Manroot’, the tale that started it all, is the evocative and stirring story of a lonely town in Missouri, and a young woman named Katherine who discovers a mystical side to herself that she’d never known existed. After Katherine falls in love with a complicated man, the violence of dark magic threatens to annihilate all she knows and holds dear. Now being re-released in e-book format for the first time since its initial publication, ‘Manroot’ is a potent tale of destiny, spiritualism and love, written in Anne Steinberg’s signature compelling style.

Synopsis
In the spring of 1939, Katherine Sheahan and her father, the taciturn Irishman Jesse, are looking for work in the isolated tourist town of Castlewood, Missouri, which offers bathing, gambling and adultery. Jesse gets a job as handyman and Katherine as maid at a small hotel. Jesse drinks and neglects his work and eventually disappears, abandoning his daughter. Katherine discovers the ginseng, the manroot, and other secrets of the foothills; she discovers herself as a natural healer who has inherited this gift from her Navajo Indian mother. She also has a special but unwelcome gift. She can communicate with spirits.

Among the hotel s regular clientele is Judge William Reardon, a local hero who metes out justice by day, then drinks the foul taste away at night. Escaping his sterile marriage, he becomes captivated by Katherine. He is like a man reborn. Theirs is a union of like-minded souls, but a dangerous dark magic is released. Can their love survive?

A powerful, haunting novel that explores the powerful themes of identity and destiny, love everlasting and its brutal twin, violence. Steinberg believes in the power of dreams. After all, her story began with a wish and a prayer. “I’m a high school dropout,” says the author.

“I know for a fact that it’s difficult to fulfill what you want to do without the proper education, but it’s certainly not impossible. When I submitted ‘Manroot’, I believed in my work, but I thought it would probably go overlooked. Still, I sent it off with all of the hope in the world. To have it be discovered in the ‘slush pile’ was nothing short of a miracle – and I remain grateful to this day that my dreams came true.”

‘Manroot’ is available now in Kindle format: HYPERLINK "http://amzn.to/1fHtS8E" http://amzn.to/1fHtS8E

About Anne Steinberg
Even though Anne Steinberg was a high school dropout, she knew deep in her psyche that she was born to write stories, and she set out to prove that dreams can come true. While living in England, she wrote short stories and submitted her first novel, Manroot “over the transom.” Her unsolicited novel was miraculously discovered in a room-sized slush pile and published by Headline Review in London.

Manroot was heralded as an important first novel in 1994 and included in the Headline Review’s prestigious “Fiction without Frontiers,” a new wave of contemporary fiction that knows no limits. Eight modern storytellers were featured: Anne Steinberg, Margaret Atwood, Iain Banks, William Gibson, Peter Hoeg, Roddy Doyle, and E. Annie Proulx. Anne went on to write several acclaimed novels, Every Town Needs A Russian Tea Room, the story of a wealthy socialite who falls in love with a penniless young Russian immigrant who is haunted by a bizarre shameful secret, The Cuckoos Gift, First Hands, and An Eye For An Ear. She is also coauthor of the occult novel The Fence, written with her grandson Nicholas Reuel Tolkien, the great grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien. Nicholas is a filmmaker, director, and published poet.

The Fence is a chilling story of a magnificent Gothic fence forged by a despicable blacksmith and infused with evil. Anne was a partner in the world famous vintage clothing store, Steinberg & Tolkien, on Kings Road in Chelsea. After a successful run for over 20 years, the shop closed, and she returned to the US, where she now writes, reads, and studies antiques, American Indian history, animal welfare, mythology, and folklore legends.Aproaching her eighty second birthday she would so loved to be known as the Grandma moses of storytelling.