A short (176 pages) tale of hope, love and joy which is full of good-hearted characters in typical Fannie Flagg fashion (she of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Café). It is an absolute delight and falls just the right side of saccharine, leaving you feeling warm and misty-eyed.
Oswald T. Campbell, aged fifty-two, down-and-out in a Chicago winter, is given only months to live unless he moves South. He finds himself in the small town of Lost River, Alabama, where the residents are friendly if feud-prone and eccentric to a fault. One of them, Roy, keeps a red cardinal, a once wounded bird called Jack, in the village store. Patsy, a sad, sweet little kid with a crippled leg, from the trailer park up in the woods, takes to dropping by the store - and falls in love with Jack. Flagg takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the lives and hearts of an engaging crew of misfits, fixers and ordinary good-hearted folk, set against the vivid natural backdrop of a mellow Alabama winter, along the riverside where birds and fish abound. Her enchanting story culminates at Christmastide with surprises and a magical 'redbird' moment.
Fannie Flagg, film, TV and stage actress, writer, producer and performer, is the bestselling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (filmed with her own awardwinning screenplay), Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! and Standing in the Rainbow.
