Bøker av Rita Haag

On his 50th birthday, shy, handsome Brent Wallace-salon owner and avid fisherman-makes an offer on an old building in a northern Wisconsin town. He plans to open several small businesses allowing him to semi-retire minutes from his favorite fishing hole, where the walleye are always biting, and the resident crow keeps him company. But the building's owner, 83-year-old Grace Havisto-who has a life-sized Elvis propped on her couch and a doorbell that plays "A Hunk A Hunk Of Burnin' Love"-insists it must be re-opened as a grocery store, although the town already has one. Her "realtor," Dana Novicki-a pierced, tattooed, purple-haired Mensa member who dresses in thrift-store-purchased formal wear-is desperate for a sale, has clearly not read the realtor's code of ethics, and just happens to notice Brent's resemblance to Elvis Presley. After the building is his, Brent realizes he has inadvertently deceived Grace, but circumstances forcing him to rely on her generosity make it difficult to come clean. Meanwhile, Dana has become more annoying yet invaluable, there's no time to fish, and the one woman he actually wants in his life will have nothing to do with him.

It is 1864. On a small farm in northwest Georgia, twelve-year-old Tatum Wiley runs wild under her father's doting eye, devising clever plans that generally go awry and land her in trouble. Despite her impish ways, she's dedicated to her uncle, a mentally handicapped artistic savant who spends his days carving realistic likenesses in the family's garden. As Sherman's troops rampage across Georgia her father feels compelled to join the Confederate Army and asks Tatum to care for Rayford, but her promise is given lightly. Consumed by grief and despair she's determined to continue her childish antics, insisting other family members should be taking on this responsibility. As the war comes closer circumstances change, and soon it is up to her, alone, to care for Rayford. When their farm comes under a Yankee attack, Tatum rises to the occasion. But it is one of Rayford's carvings that changes the course of their lives, forces her to take a stand, and makes her question if what she's been fighting hardest is the thing she wants most.