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Carol Graf was born in 1946, surrounded by the great plains of Oklahoma. Her parents’ decision to return “home” to South Carolina when Carol was five changed her life irrevocably. For the next ten years, her family was caught in the emotional turbulence and dysfunction of her mother’s extended family. Excelling in academics and athletics provided much needed balance and buffers to her family turmoil. She was valedictorian of her senior class. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with degrees in biology and chemistry (pre-med curriculum) and was listed in Who’s Who and Top Ten Outstanding Seniors. She was one of only three women in her graduating class at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she completed her residency in psychiatry in 1976. It was during her medical training that her intense experiences with patients became the first stories that ultimately led to the writing of The Hours Between Us. Entering the private practice of psychiatry in Charleston, South Carolina, she spent over thirty years working with children, adolescents, adults, and couples. She created a group practice with an innovative model of interrelatedness between psychiatrists, psychologists, and masters level therapists in their medical and therapeutic work together. She married her current husband, Alex Beard, in 1991, combining their two sets of children into a blended family. Alex and Carol live on deep water on a salt marsh in Charleston.

Kai Ingersohn was motivated to become a psychiatrist after a childhood of dysfunction with her tempestuous and manic-depressive grandmother, Dumpling. Now divorced, in private practice, and raising two teenagers, she starts work with Stephanie, a young grad student with acute leukemia, who has returned to Charleston and its mystic healing waters and marsh to fight for her life. Stephanie braves the revelations of shocking family secrets, while Kai seeks peace with her own past as the therapy unfolds. Both women emerge with new capacities for love, life, and spiritual truths. This is a powerful work from a novelist whose story reflects her real-life experiences as a psychiatrist in Charleston. Set against a lush Lowcountry backdrop of Spanish moss, salt marshes, silent oaks, and the pounding sea, The Hours Between Us is an artful exploration of the heartbreaking struggles and unbreakable spirits of two extraordinary women. Carol Graf received her medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina and completed her psychiatric residency there as well. She has practiced psychiatry in the Charleston, South Carolina area for more than thirty years. She now lives on a salt marsh with her husband. Together, they have four children and eight grandchildren. This is her first novel.

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Category: Literature & Fiction