The Coffin Maker

From the New York Times-acclaimed author of Sweeping Up Glass... .

For two decades, Flannery Christian she has been hidden by the elderly Corleone sisters on their Crosspins plantation. At last, the nightmares are fading. In the barn there, she turns out inlaid coffins that sell, across the south as coffee tables, armoires and bridal chests. Frequently, she drives into Mexico, sells a coffin for a few pesos, and leaves some at the Mission de las Flores. Her work is in demand, but she remains incognito -- terrified of having her picture taken. More -- coffins are not the only thing she's been delivering to the mission.

Now a police officer is found dead at the Corleones' door. Flannery is a train wreck - the twenty-five years is up since she and the others buried a jar and made a pact. Teamed with a brittle prostitute, a defrocked priest, a Colombian-prison escapee, and an African reader of chicken bones, she heads south to make things right for the remaining sick and starved inhabitants of the Row.


Genre: General Fiction