Mary-Esther Sloat is a woman with a patchwork past-three failed marriages, misspent youth, and a series of dead-end jobs. When she attempts to donate a kidney to her dying mother, she learns a life-altering truth: Loretta Boudreau Day is not her biological mother. After Loretta dies, Hurricane Katrina destroys Mary-Esther's only tie to New Orleans-her beloved Nana's house. For a while, Mary-Esther lives in a battered Chevy van. Armed with a faded birth certificate, she finally corrals the courage to unravel the mystery of her birth at a small hospital in the panhandle of Florida. When she...

How does one middle-aged woman juggle her roles as wife, mother, coworker, and caretaker and resist the urge to drive, one-way, from town? Hannah Olsen daydreams of such an escape.Hannah belongs to the sandwich generation, one of many women wedged between nurturing children and caring for aging parents. Her elderly mother Mae-who lives nearby in an assisted living facility-is at times profound and funny, or bullish and ill-tempered. Hannah balances her reality with Mae's often demented view, with hilarious and bittersweet results. Though Hannah allows her two siblings to contribute, she...

Karen Fletcher, alias Mary Elizabeth Kensington, has everything: haughty British-born facade, successful public broadcasting career in Atlanta, beautiful home, and devoted fiance. Following her breast cancer diagnosis, Karen returns to her southern hometown of Chattahoochee, Florida, to garner support, seek treatment, and unravel the tangled fabrication she has so carefully woven. Karen embarks on the long and often painful journey to claim the rest of her life.

When Elizabeth first meets Simon at Westside House, he is angry and scared. She's ten and he's eleven, and like her, Simon is a war orphan. As the revolution tears through New Haven City, the two flee toward the mountains with meager food and a hand-drawn map to an old cabin. Dodging soldiers and gunfire, Elizabeth and Simon make the long, dangerous trek to reach the Emerald Mountains. The first night in the cabin, the hearth bursts into flames and they barely escape. Roused by the fire, a scruffy dwarf pops from a nearby tree hollow. He introduces himself as Taproot, then, after much...

Life is crap and the weather is stupid-hot: reasons enough for four small-town Southern women to plan "the easy way out." Abby has no husband, no children, no living kin, and a painful family secret. Loiscell is a two-time breast cancer survivor facing recurrence with dwindling faith and courage. Sheila is a meek abused wife hiding behind a religious, volunteer-queen veneer. Estranged from her only child, Caroline "Choo-choo" Ivey desperately misses her late husband. Sheila's husband, a correctional officer for a local prison, belongs to a clandestine paramilitary group. Glenn's drinking and...

Fifty winters ago, Elizabeth and Simon fled war-torn New Haven City into the Emerald Mountains, where a dwarf named Taproot used his powers to shrink the two children. These new "one-spirit" beings, Elsbeth and Sim, master that same magic and create others like themselves. They live in underground burrows, dump-dive for supplies, and chat with animals. All, under the watch of Taproot and the regal Pensworthy owls. But Sim The First Father believes rules don't apply. One rash decision leaves him and three clan members wandering the treacherous, icy passes. Can Elsbeth The First Mother dig...

Chattahoochee, Florida, a town with a state mental institution on its main drag, seldom slips from its usual relaxed pace. Detached from the tourist havens farther south, everyone here knows everybody else. Senior citizen Elvina Houston, head of the little-ole-lady hotline, keeps her nose wedged in the middle. October typically brings three well-attended festivals and a break from the oppressive summer. But this year, the relentless heat and humidity continue and a parade of horribles cranks up for Jake Witherspoon, his best friend Hattie Davis Lewis, and her older brother Bobby, one that...

Welcome to the town of Chattahoochee, Florida. Imagine living down the road from a mental institution and growing up in a world still drenched in the traditions of the Deep South. Hattie Davis couldn't wait to get away. Returning home for her mother's funeral, she reconnects with a dear and flamboyant friend, Jake Witherspoon. Despite the unfortunate situation that brought them together, the penned memoir of a deceased and beloved mental patient inspires Hattie and Jake to join forces and take the town by storm. Yet their new entrepreneurial lives stall when Jake is kidnapped and beaten by...