THE GARDEN ANGEL
A novel by Mindy Friddle
U.S. Publisher: St. Martin's [Spring 2004]
Cutter Johanson is plucky and eccentric, nostalgic about her family's once glorious past. In her spare time, she gardens in the family cemetery and knits hair doilies. While writing obits for San Souci Citizen and waiting tables at the Pancake Palace, she is desperate to ward off potential buyers for her dilapidated family homestead -- and goes to extreme and often hilarious lengths to succeed.
Elizabeth Byers, stricken with panic attacks, rarely ventures outside the house she shares with her husband, a professor at the local university. Agoraphobic, trapped in suburbia, even her tentative trips to the supermarket turn frightening and grotesque.
Cutter is losing her house, and Elizabeth is losing her husband. Surrounded by offbeat characters, the two women pull together to seek sanctuary, only to plunge into a string of misadventures that will irreparably disrupt their lives -- and the lives of others. In the tradition of richly comic Southern writing, this quirky debut novel captures life in a down-at-the-heels small town and celebrates women's friendships.
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