Songs in Ordinary Time

In the summer of 1960 in Atkinson, Vermont, Marie Fremoyle is a strong but vulnerable divorced woman whose loneliness and ambition for her childres make her easy prey for con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice, 17, involved with a young priest, Norm, 16, hotheaded and idealistic, and Benjy, 12 -- isolated and misunderstood, and so desperate for his mother's happiness that he hides the deadly truth he knows about Duvall. We also meet Sam Fermoyle, the childrens' alcoholic father; Sam's brother-in-law, who make anonymous "love" calls from the bathroom of his appliance store, and the Klubock family, who live an orderly life in the house next door. The international No.1 bestseller and the most astonishing publishing success story since The Bridges of Madison County. Set in Atkinson, Vermont, ... A powerful and gripping novel from the acclaimed author of Vanished and A Dangerous Woman. "A nearly perfect summer book. . . . Songs in Ordinary Time is real life cruising small-town USA with the top down and the volume up. In her graphic, stiletto chapters, Mary McGarry Morris is a cross between Elizabeth Gaskell and David Lynch".--Minneapolis Star Tribune. NPR sponsorship.