{"product_id":"9781620403013","title":"Flying Shoes : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Lisa Howorth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMary Byrd Thornton could understand how a reporter couldn't resist the story: a nine-year-old boy sexually molested and killed on Mother's Day, 1966. A suspect to whom nothing would stick. A neighborhood riddled with secrets. No one, especially the bungling or complicit authorities, had been able to solve the crime. Now, thirty years later, the reporter's call will reel a reluctant Mary Byrd from Mississippi back to Virginia where she must confront her family-and, once again, the murder's irremovable stain of tragedy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLisa Howorth's remarkable \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of fiction, but the murder is based on the still-unsolved case of her stepbrother, a front page story in the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e. And yet this is not a crime novel; it is an honest and luminous story of a particular time and place in the South, where even calamitous weather can be a character, everyone has a story, and all are inextricably entwined. With a flamboyant cast, splendid dark humor, a potent sense of history, and a shocking true story at its heart, \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich and candid novel from a fresh new voice about family and memory and one woman's flight from a wounded past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Like all great stories from Mississippi, \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e never proceeds in a straight line. It twists and turns in order to notice what matters most in life, and then delivers us to exactly where we need to be. Those of us who have waited a long time for this book celebrate its arrival.” —\u003ci\u003eAnn Patchett, author of This is the Story of a Happy Marriage and State of Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lisa Howorth's dazzling verbal wit almost stops you in your tracks while you are flying along in this delicious prose. It is a scream - also heartbreaking, saucy, sassy, poignant, and triumphant. Mary Byrd is a bold, kooky, quirky character I won't forget. It has been a long time since I read a novel with such charm, generosity, humor, daring and brillance. It is just splendid.” —\u003ci\u003eBobbie Ann Mason, author of In Country and The Girl is the Blue Beret\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lisa Howorth's \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e braids a love know of new South, old South, and haunted South that catches at the reader's heart, even as the humor and sadness of her rollicking prose has us slipping off our own shoes and moving to the music in her voice. \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes \u003c\/i\u003eis exhilarating and brave, full of love and grief and the journeys we all make from past to present.” —\u003ci\u003eJayne Anne Phillips, author of Quiet Dell and Lark and Termite\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a well-done portrait of a girl who survived a horrific tragedy and emerged in middle age with her empathy, sense of generosity and ability to forgive intact.” —\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A potent mix of Southern melancholy and charm . . . \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes \u003c\/i\u003eluxuriates in life's messiness--eccentric friends, freakish weather--and its sadness, too . . . A-.” —\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Howorth writes with real flair . . . A memorable mosaic of a place, a time and a good-hearted woman at midlife, facing crises old and new.” —\u003ci\u003eAssociated Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] buzz-worthy debut.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e, the delicious first novel from Lisa Howorth . . . [is] funny, character-driven storytelling with crackling dialogue.” —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness, starred review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lisa Howorth's bittersweet debut novel, \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes\u003c\/i\u003e, is more about faith, human endurance and Southern traditions than it is about the abduction and murder of a 9-year-old boy . . . The real journey we take in this giddy, bighearted lifeboat of a novel is not toward death, but a wild ride into the irrepressible life that goes on in spite of it.” —\u003ci\u003eAtlanta Journal Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An entertaining, and enlightening journey along the interconnected lives of a distinctive cast of characters.” —\u003ci\u003eDaily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An impressive debut, with heart and soul, in a long tradition of Mississippi writers.” —\u003ci\u003eWashington Independent Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Worth the long wait and the hard-won lessons that Howorth translates into sparkling, fast, funny prose . . . You'll be so engrossed by \u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes \u003c\/i\u003ethat you may wind up with a book-shaped sunburn across your face.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Washingtonian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFlying Shoes \u003c\/i\u003eis animated by Howorth's feel for the old--and new--South, and the slightly oddball characters who inhabit it.” —\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune, Editor's Choice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A very funny novel.” —\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781620403013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40595677839566,"sku":"9781620403013","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_fc0a2f35-820b-4128-9e86-02e2cf84564b.jpg?v=1637838245","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781620403013","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}