Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126244 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, not much happens. The highlight of 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan's week comes on Friday, with the arrival of the Bookmobile, the sight of which sends her into raptures. Her favourite book concerns the ancient Chinese art of reading faces. Through her face-readings, we come to understand the hostilities simmering within her family: her father whose small eyes are the clear "sign of a deceptive nature" and her aunt who "has a small head and thin lips. (That's a terrible combination)". Adriana Trigiani's first novel concerns the family scandals that befall Ave Maria in this seemingly uneventful town. Greed, lust, envy--all the ancient emotional elements--manifest themselves even in this hamlet of "ordinary folk". Fans of Fannie Flagg or Rebecca Wells will enjoy this down-home tale, full of small, everyday details and colloquial revelations. The writing is often awkward, but so too are the characters who inhabit this place: the Bookmobile lady who thinks of herself as the sexiest woman alive; the amateur actors in the local Outdoor Drama who bristle with ambition when they hear that Elizabeth Taylor is coming to visit. In Big Stone Gap, her visit is so anticipated, it's like she's an angel sent from heaven. --Ellen Williams, Amazon.com.

Synopsis
Big Stone Gap is a sleepy hamlet where kids get married and start families at eighteen, and stay for ever. So thirty-five-year old Ave Maria Mulligan is something of an oddity. A self-proclaimed spinster, as the local pharmacist she's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years. Now Ave Maria is about to discover a scandal in her own family's past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she's juggling two unexpected marriage proposals and conducting a no-holds-barred family feud. The thought of spending the rest of her life in Big Stone Gap is suddenly overwhelming...With an unforgettable cast of characters and a heroine with an extraordinary story to tell, all living in this quirky, remarkable town where even Elizabeth Taylor pays a visit, BIG STONE GAP is a wonderfully vibrant, unashamedly feel-good debut.

From the Publisher
Big Stone Gap, Virginia, is the sort of sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains where kids get married and start families at eighteen and stay for ever. So thirty-five-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is something of an oddity. A self-proclaimed spinster, as the local pharmacist she's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years.

Now Ave Maria is about to discover a scandal in her own family's past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she's juggling two unexpected marriage proposals and conducting a no-holds-barred family feud. The thought of spending the rest of her life in Big Stone Gap is suddenly overwhelming . . .

With an unforgettable cast of characters and a heroine with an extraordinary story to tell, all living in this quirky, rather remarkable town where even Elizabeth Taylor pays a visit, Big Stone Gap is a wonderfully vibrant debut.

Customer Reviews

A really enjoyable book.
Big Stone Gap leaves you feeling good, and is the kind of book that by the time you've finished it you really feel as if you really know the place and the characters. It has a great mix of humour and emotion (the odd tear was shed). It is not taxing, just a very enjoyable book. I read it over a couple of days on the way to work and it certainly made the journey go faster (I also just bought a copy for my Mum). As a reader who likes authors like Anita Shreve, I'll defintely be looking out for other books by Adriana Trigiani, let's hope she keeps writing!

Big Stone Gap
I bought this book and the sequel "Big Cherry Holler" on a whim and read both books in a week. I couldn't put them down. I loved them both in equal measure and found the main character Ave Maria Mulligan both lovable and irritating as she tries to sort out her life. Iva Lou was a great creation and Jack Mac has to be one of the most instantly fanciable characters in modern literature! I thought the author's ability to let us glimpse a portion of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains was exceptional. Any book that makes you laugh out loud and cry real tears has to be worth reading. Go on, spoil yourself!

Southern Comfort Delight!
Genuinely warm and witty with an unforgettable cast of quirky characters, these internationally acclaimed novels, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, bring the idiosyncrasies of small-town America brilliantly to life.
‘Big Stone Gap’ is the story of a local pharmacist and self-confessed spinster Ave Maria Mulligan who has been keeping the townsfolk’s secrets for years. She is about to discover a scandal in her own family’s past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she’s juggling two marriage proposals and a family feud
‘Big Cherry Holler’ is the extraordinary sequel – eight years later, a deeply felt and brilliantly evoked story of two lovers who have lost their way struggling to find each other again. Ave’s past ghosts return to haunt her between the Appalachians of the Deep South and the Italian Alps. The third novel ‘Milk Glass Moon’ is about the power and truth of love, an enduring marriage, the joys and demands of motherhood, a daughter’s first love and a close-knit community faced with seismic changes. These highly original and hilariously funny novels are bursting with humour, honesty, drama and local colour.
Lovers of the book or film versions of ‘Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood’, ‘Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café’ and ‘Steel Magnolias’ will definitely adore these feel-good, wholesomely honest and beautifully observed southern comfort tales. Undoubtedly some of the best books I’ve read in a while!