It's been eight years since Ave Maria and Jack MacChesney walked down the aisle and, a year later, welcomed daughter Etta into their lives and the fold of the eccentric, loving mountain folk of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. They've been busy with the struggles and details of everyday life at home, at the pharmacy, and in the mines, and they've successfully weathered quite a few marital storms -- but there's a veritable hurricane brewing on the horizon.When the MacChesneys spend the summer apart (Ave takes Etta to her father's home in Italy; Jack stays home to get a new business off the ground -- with the eager assistance of the comely local business-supply saleswoman), the very fiber of their marriage is tested. All of our favorite Gap characters return with gusto -- sexy Iva Lou, honest Fleeta, insightful Pearl, wise Theodore Tipton, even the villainous Aunt Alice -- to help Ave unravel the secrets, shore up the shortcomings, and rediscover the magic of the man she fell in love with.A novel of love, family, and forgiveness, Big Cherry Holler is a worthy and joyous successor to Trigiani's beloved Big Stone Gap. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Trigiani returns to the rural Virginia of her bestselling debut, Big Stone Gap, with a big-hearted novel that alternates dollops of comfort with moments of folksy charm and stark poignancy. Eight years have passed since self-styled town spinster Ave Mari and miner Jack MacChesney wed. During that time, they've had one daughter, Etta, and lost a son, Joe, to leukemia. Ave's handling of Joe's death strains the marriage. When Jack loses his job and starts a construction company, complete with an attractive supplier named Karen who sets her cap for him, things became shakier. Then Ave visits her family in Italy and faces her own temptation, in the form of hunky Pete Rutledge. Suddenly the serenity of the solid MacChesney marriage is threatened on all sides. Will love keep the pair together? And if love isn't enough, what is? Readers may find the answer to this, the novel's central question, to be anticlimactic. Still, Ave is a spunky and likable narrator; the novel is populated with many of the same characters readers found endearing the first time around; and the story of a mother grappling with grief over the loss of a child is genuinely moving. Big Stone Gap took place in the '80s; now we're up to the '90s. Can "Ave in the Millennium" be far behind? Readers have faced worse fates. Agent, Suzanne Gluck for ICM. (May 22)Forecast: Few sequels deliver as reliably as this one does, and readers will likely respond accordingly, following the 12-city author tour. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In this sequel to Big Stone Gap (LJ 4/1/00), it's now the late 1980s, and Ave Maria and Jack MacChesney have been married 11 years. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Etta, but lost their younger child, Joe, a few years earlier. This loss and other marital stresses have tested their relationship, but the summer brings on the biggest trial yet. As Jack tries to launch a new construction business in Big Stone Gap, VA, Ave Maria and Etta take off for Italy. While many of the same humorous characters of the first novel reappear here, the tragedy of the death of a child and the chill it can cast on any marriage make this work more somber than its predecessor. Nonetheless, this novel of love and forgiveness delivers its story in a believable manner. Ave Maria remains someone readers would like to know, and Iva Lou, her librarian friend, still has her finger on the pulse of Mars/Venus relationships in this neck of the woods. Recommended for popular fiction collections. Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland HeightsCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information