Betta Nolan moves to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin anew. Pursuing a dream of a different kind of life, she is determined to find pleasure in her simply daily routines. Among those who help her in both expected and unexpected ways are the ten-year-old boy next door, three wild women friends from her college days, a twenty-year-old who is struggling to find his place in the world, and a handsome man who is ready for love....

A las cinco de la tarde de un viernes nadie se fija en otra cosa que no sea el camino que le lleva a casa, así que no es difícil que alguien pueda desapercibido detrás de sus gafas de sol y sus guantes. Aunque lleve consigo un rifle. Sin embargo, esa persona en la que nadie se había fijado no tarda en darse a conocer descargando su arma contra la multitud. Seis certeros disparos y cinco muertos. La policía no tarda en atrapar a un asesino que...

Why do we become who we become? Through the intertwined threads of the characters' lives, this is the question explored in this eagerly awaited first novel from the National Book Award finalist.

"Growing up on their hardscrabble farm in rural Kentucky, fifteen-year-old Albertina "Bertie" Winslow has learned a lot from her mama, Polly. She knows how to lance a boil, make a pie crust, butcher a pig, and tend to every chore that needs doing. What she doesn't know, but is forced to reckon with all too soon, is how to look after children as a mother should ...When Polly succumbs to a long illness, Bertie takes on responsibility for her four younger...

Ten-year-old Anna Nickel's worst nightmare has come true. Her father has decided to move the family from Colorado back to Oakwood, Kansas -- where he grew up -- in order to become the minister of the church there. New friends, new school, a new community, and a family of strangers await. Luckily, Anna is a Gold Ribbon Safety Citizen, prepared for almost everything. Unluckily, Anna isn't ready for cousins, lost cats, water balloons and rotten eggs,...

"The Flanagan sisters are as different as they come. Seventeen-year-old Annalie is bubbly, sweet, and self-conscious, whereas nineteen-year-old Margaret is sharp and assertive. Margaret looks just like their mother, while Annalie passes for white and looks like the father who abandoned them years ago, leaving their Chinese immigrant mama to raise the girls alone in their small, predominantly white Midwestern town. When their house is vandalized with...