Resourceful women struggling to overcome adversity are at the core of Charlene Wexler’s most popular books. Farewell to South Shore, published in 2024 by Speaking Volumes, is no exception. Following Sherrie, a fierce and ambitious woman in midcentury Chicago, Wexler traces the larger history of women’s independence in a rapidly changing world.
“Farewell to South Shore taps into and articulates a woman’s emotions related to dealing with a changing society, particularly its expectations of women,” Wexler explained.
Sherrie, who grows up in a close-knit Jewish family in Chicago’s South Shore community, is at odds with her family’s Old World values and her aspirations of higher education.
As the 1960s progress, Sherrie and her family increasingly encounter modern day problems and situations, including their changing neighborhood, homosexuality, unplanned pregnancy and abortion, and family secrets. Sherrie becomes the first girl in the family to go to college, and then to law school. When she meets the man of her dreams, marries him, and leaves her career as an attorney behind, Sherrie is distressed to discover that her husband turns out to have old-fashioned patriarchal ideas of his own.
In the wake of divorce and single motherhood, Sherrie re-establishes her legal career as an attorney fighting for Roe v. Wade – equal rights, and abused women. As the 2000s dawn, Sherrie pivots toward female financial empowerment, as she embarks on a new, modern romance.
A story of tragedies and triumphs to which every reader can relate, Farewell to South Shore not only refers to departure from a place, but also serves as a metaphor for leaving a time and culture that will never exist again.
“The book inspires perseverance and determination to help take charge of one’s own life in a rapidly changing world,” Wexler added. “A world vastly different from the idyllic South Shore of the main character’s youth.”
In July 2025, Farewell to South Shore won an international Apex Award of Excellence from Communications Concepts, a writing and communications think tank based in Williamsburg, VA.
Farewell to South Shore is available as an e-book from:
Farewell to South Shore is available as a paperback from:
- Amazon.com
- BarnesAndNoble.com
- Speaking Volumes
- Blackwell’s
- Boekenportaal
- Books A Million
- Booktopia
- CeDe.ch
- Magers & Quinn
- Mighty Ape
- Papeterie Trychlepark
- Rakuten Kobo
- Takealot.com
- Walmart
Reviews:
- Speaking Volumes
- Reviewer Anthony Avina website
- Barnes & Noble
- Congregation Beth Shalom
- Reviewer Katrina Robinson website
- San Diego Jewish World web website
- Spertus Institute
Awards:
- Named #37 in Suburban Fiction, Amazon.com, December 17, 2025
- Apex Award of Excellence, Communications Concepts, 2025
- Named #11 in Suburban Fiction, Amazon.com, June 18, 2024
- Named #21 in Suburban Fiction, Amazon.com, July 19, 2024
- Four Seasons Book Award Fall Finalist, 2024
- Global Book Award, Bronze, Contemporary Fiction category, 2024
Farewell to South Shore: ISBN-13: 979-8890220721; Publisher: Speaking Volumes, LLC; Publish date : Jan. 22, 2024; page count: 322; Kindle edition ASIN: B0CSZS3T7V.
Charlene Wexler 
