THE BOOK OF POLLY

This is a sweetly touching novel about a 10-year-old girl obsessed with the fear that her larger-than-life mother will die, and who is determined not only to keep her among the living but to find out the secrets of her long-buried past.

Willow 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 shoot 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 she's here by accident, a late-life afterthought. Willow's father died before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone and failing elsewhere: it's just her and bigger-than-life Polly.

Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Polly's 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 kick like the best hot sauce, and 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 you'll come to know one of the most unforgettable mother-daughter duos you've ever met.

Kathy Hepinstall is the author of five previous novels. Kathy is also a top level advertising creative director who has written award-winning campaigns for corporate clients from Apple to Nike. She lives in Portland, Oregon, and Santa Barbara, California. Polly is based, in part, on Kathy Hepinstall's own mother, who has as wicked a tongue as her fictional counterpart.