Nickel Mountain Author:John Gardner Here is a moving story of two people: a fat, gentle middle-aged man who runs a rural diner, and the young, plain girl who drifts into his life and remains to become part of it. Quietly, delicately, Gardner reveals what these two are to each other as the years pass, as they move through the universal rituals of courtship and mariage, the birth ... more »of a child, the loss of innocence, confession, atonement, forgiveness, the acceptance of death.« less