num_pages: 360
description: 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 favorite book concerns the ancient Chinese art of reading faces. Through her face-readings, we come to understand the hostilities simmering within her her father whose small eyes are the clear "sign of a deceptive nature." 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 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
language: Spanish; Castilian
title: Todo Empezo Aquel Verano
titlecomplete: Todo Empezo Aquel Verano
characters: Otto, Theodore Tipton, Worley, Uncle Wayne, Inez Eisenberg, Elmo Gaspar, Nan MacChesney, Tayloe Slagle, Nellie Goodloe, Elizabeth Taylor, Gala Nuccio, Zia Antonietta, Betty Slagle, Lew Eisenberg, Pearl Grimes, Iva Lou Wade, Mario Barbari, John Warner, Fleeta Mullins, Jack "Jack Mac" MacChesney, Aunt Alice, Ave Maria Mulligan, Spec, Meoli Vilminore, Aunt Cecelia, Lyle Makin
genres: Audiobook, Book Club, Adult, Southern, Historical Fiction, Chick Lit, Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
ratings_count: 45872
places: Big Stone Gap, Virginia, Virginia
series: Big Stone Gap
publisher: Nuevas Ediciones De Bolsillo