The Book of Polly: A Novel

ISBN: 0399562109

Author: Hepinstall, Kathy

Condition: New

Delightful. . . funny and poignant. --PeopleWith a kick like the best hot sauce, this is the laugh-out-loud story of a girl determined to keep up with her aging, crazy-as-a-fox mother"If you ever pined for a mother who would take a hunting falcon as her wingman to a parent-teacher conference, Polly is the gal for you. Delicious." --Mark Childress, author of Crazy in AlabamaWillow Havens is ten years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother will die. Her mother, Polly, is a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman who lives to chase varmints, drink margaritas, and antagonize the neighbors-and she sticks out like a sore thumb among the young modern mothers of their small conventional Texas town. She was in her late fifties when Willow was born, so Willow knows shes here by accident, a late-life afterthought. Willows father died before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone and failing elsewhere. Its just her and bigger-than-life Polly.Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Pollys life pre-Willow. Why did she leave her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana, fifty years ago and vow never to return? Who is Garland Jones, her long-ago suitor who possibly killed a man? And will Polly be able to outrun the Bear, the illness that finally puts her on a collision course with her past?The Book of Polly has a great blend of humor and sadness, pathos and hilarity. This is a bittersweet novel about the grip of love in a truly quirky family and youll come to know one of the most unforgettable mother-daughter duos youve ever met.