num_pages: 468
description: Three Chimney's, Virginia, resident Margaret Pricket, a single mother and specialty cheese maker, is in danger of losing all she holds dear. Her century-old family dairy farm is falling deeper into debt. Her thirteen-year-old daughter, Polly, whom Margaret has tried to shelter from the modern world, is becoming perilously drawn toward her charismatic, subversive history teacher. Margaret's loyal farmhand, August, a Thomas Jefferson impersonator by night, is secretly in love with her. And she's been convinced by the town's pastor to re-create the original Thomas Jefferson-era, 1,234-point "Mammoth Cheese," as a gift for the president-elect. Soon the entire town is wrapped up in the endeavor, and Margaret finds herself torn between her principles and her passions. An American pastoral like no other,  The Mammoth Cheese  is a delicious and satisfying tour de force.
language: English
title: The Mammoth Cheese
titlecomplete: The Mammoth Cheese
genres: Audiobook, American, Literary Fiction, Novels, Modern, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Food, Contemporary, Family
ratings_count: 990
places: Virginia
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist
publisher: Virago