Pearl A Novel Author:Tabitha King Pearl Dickenson has come to Nodd's Ridge to claim an inheritance from a relative she never knew. Unexpectedly, she elects to stay, unknowingly upsetting the town's equilibrium. She acquires a local diner and makes it a fixture of the town, through wonderful cooking and prodigious hard work. But the simple desire to have a home and a place of ... more »her own becomes complicated, to the entertainment of her decidedly interested neighbors, when she stumbles into not one but two love affairs with two very different but equally troubled men--Reuben Styles, a local man fighting to hold onto his rebellious teenage daughter in the aftermath of the breakup of his marriage, and wealthy summer resident David Christopher, brilliant and unstable, drawn back to the town where his childhood was shattered after the murder of his sister. Pearl's attempt to rescue Reuben's daughter, Karen, from an involvement with an abusive man triggers a series of revelations, not least Pearl's own awareness that she has let her confused heart lead her into a potentially disastrous conflict. When the seething rivalry between the two men explodes into violence, continuing a deep-rooted feud that threatens the very fabric of everyday life, Pearl realizes that only she has the power to heal--or destroy--the community...and to save--or destroy--herself.
Tabitha King's masterful storytelling gift and her insight characterizations--so evident in her previous novels SMALL WORLD, CARETAKERS, and THE TRAP--are undeniable in this gripping story of passion and intrigue. In PEARL, her finest, most moving work yet, she has created an extraordinary, multidensional heroine and a vivid portrait of small-town life.« less