Thin on story, rich in characters

Prodigal Summer revolves around three separate stories that occur in the same county in West Virginia...an old rigid widower, the new city bride of one of the local farmers and a recently divorced woman working for the park service alone up in the mountains. There is no big climax in the book, no secret plotline to time them all together, no action. But the drama is real, and the characters are all interesting and can be related to. The thing that really ties them all together is their relationship with the land and nature. Her writing is not heavy handed, nor the story overly dramatic. She creates an location that's a nice place to be, and was kinda sad to leave.

8/10