Book of the Year, 2022 Christy Awards
"Readers will fall in love with Old Depot Grocery and its women as Cox explores themes of loneliness and isolation and highlights mother daughter relationships and the strength of the female spirit. Cox is a writer to turn to for emotionally rich and redemptive fiction."--Booklist starred review
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Present Day. After tragedy plunges her into grief and unresolved anger, Sarah Ashby returns to her childhood home determined to finally follow her long-denied dream of running Old Depot Grocery alongside her mother and grandmother. But when she arrives, her mother, Rosemary, announces to her that the store is closing. Sarah and her grandmother, Glory Ann, make a pact to save the store, but Rosemary has worked her entire life to make sure her daughter never follows in her footsteps. She has her reasons--but she'll certainly never reveal the real one.
1965. Glory Ann confesses to her family that she's pregnant with her deceased fiancé's baby. Pressured into a marriage of convenience with a shopkeeper to preserve the family reputation, Glory Ann vows never to love again. But some promises are not as easily kept as she imagined.
This dual-timeline story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of a mother-daughter dynamic, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth.
"Amanda Cox's poignant novel waltzes 'between grief and joy' as its mothers and daughters grow to appreciate each other's strengths."--Foreword Reviews
