by Fannie Flagg
First published 2016
Lordor Nordstrom arrives in Elmwood Springs, Missouri, with his Swedish mail-order bride Katrina and big dreams. He creates a thriving community and establishes Still Meadows cemetery as a beautiful resting place for generations to come. But the dead at Still Meadows have other plans. Strange things begin happening at the cemetery, and the deceased residents discover they can still communicate and observe the living world around them. As families grow and the town evolves through multiple generations, the cemetery becomes anything but peaceful. The departed continue to care deeply about their descendants, watching over romances, family dramas, and community changes with keen interest. Lordor's legacy grows beyond what he ever imagined as both the living and the dead navigate love, loss, and the mysteries that connect them. This multigenerational story reveals how death cannot break the bonds of community and affection that tie people together across time.
Genres: fiction, family-life, american-fiction, 20th-century, magical-realism, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, multigenerational
Setting: Elmwood Springs, Missouri, Still Meadows
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
402 pages · Hardcover · Random House