The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Hardcover

Baker, Tiffany

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446194204 ISBN 13: 9780446194204

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

About this title

About the Author:

Tiffany Baker lives in Tiburon, California with her husband and three children. This is her first novel.

From AudioFile:

Saddled with an untreated pituitary gland abnormality, Truly is a giant of a girl. Shunned by the townsfolk of Aberdeen, New York, she finds alternative homes with the hopeless Dyerson family and, later, with her dastardly brother-in-law, Dr. Robert Morgan. Carrington MacDuffie blesses Truly with a sweet, lilting voice, a quality replicated in several characters. She struggles with characterizing some of the males but nails Dr. Morgan with a suitably gruff tone. MacDuffie's finest vocalization belongs to the speech-impaired Amelia Dyerson, Truly's lone companion. In the Morgan household, Truly discovers a set of legendary herbal treatments, setting her on a redemptive, yet tragic, course. Listeners will be moved by this remarkable story of love, loss, and ultimate triumph. J.J.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0446194204
• ISBN 13: 9780446194204
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 341