The Annie Year: A Novel - Softcover

Ash, Stephanie Wilbur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1939419964 ISBN 13: 9781939419965

Publisher: The Unnamed Press, 2016

Synopsis

Tall, trusted Tandy Caide, CPA, is a long-time patron of the arts in her town, which is why you will find her sitting in the front row of the high school’s annual musical production. This year is an Annie year and it would be no different than other years were it not for the high school’s hiring of a new vocational agriculture (Vo-Ag) teacher. With his beguiling ponytail and decorative beaded belt, Kenny catches Tandy’s eye immediately. Ignoring the fact of her slovenly husband who takes most of his meals in their hot tub Tandy decides to entertain Kenny’s advances.

Trusted community pillar that she is, Tandy’s affair has instant repercussions. People are talking and her husband’s subsequent breakdown and check-in to a mental institution doesn’t help. At her regular meeting with the Order of the Pessimists comprised of her deceased father’s disgruntled and drunken best friends she is asked to step down as treasurer. Not only that, but her old lover is keeping a secret somehow connected to the Vo-Ag teacher. And meth labs fueled by the abundance of fertilizer present in the region keep blowing up. Somehow, it is all connected to Tandy’s ex-bestfriend’s daughter the star of this year’s Annie. As Tandy pieces together the puzzle that has become her life, it becomes clear she must embark on a journey of self-discovery that might even include leaving town for good.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephanie Wilbur Ash is a former editor at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. She lives in Minneapolis and Mankato, MN, and is originally from rural Iowa. This is her first novel.

Review:

"Stephanie Wilbur Ash's new novel The Annie Year is a fierce hymn to small Midwestern towns, and the women who live there." ―Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio

"This is a keeper, a fresh and quirky 'Main Street' for the Midwest... Stephanie Ash writes with a wry smile and an obvious adoration of Iowa small-town life. Its faux-preachy tone keeps us snooty types from the big cities along the river at arm's length while Ash's character embraces her imperfect corner of the world. It's a bold first novel by Ash." The Star Tribune

"Ash’s debut novel brilliantly captures the slanted quirkiness of a Midwest full of small-business owners and exploding home-methamphetamine labs... Darkly hilarious and weirdly beguiling." Kirkus Reviews

"A lonely accountant waffles between pessimism and hope in this quirky debut... Tandy’s voice is intriguingly and deceptively complex, leading readers to glimpse the longing beneath her professional veneer." Publishers Weekly

"Stephanie Ash's The Annie Year is an incredible debut hilarious and insightful and energetic. Ash sassily mines the dark humor of Midwestern life with utter confidence and creates buoyant and indelible characters who will stick in your heart and mind forever and ever." John Jodzio, Author of Knockout

"The people in this town will try to tell you that... So The Annie Year begins with its small-town Greek chorus. Meanwhile, Tandy Caide, sardonic CPA and pathological people-pleaser, enters the year of her reckoning, the year she starts making her own moral ledger. Like the mythological Annie you know, the one who sings 'It’s a Hard Knock Life' but also 'Tomorrow' Tandy has spunky charm and believable innocence. I read this mordantly funny book in one sitting, it's a fine novel with a main character you’ll miss once you’ve finished." Debra Monroe, author of My Unsentimental Education

"Stephanie Ash's completely original comic novel is a caustic, gimlet-eyed, cry from the heart for small town America and a very funny look at big desires in a small place." Mark Haskell Smith, author of Raw: A Love Story

About this edition

• Publisher: The Unnamed Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1939419964
• ISBN 13: 9781939419965
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246