Welcome to the Great Mysterious

"All right, so I'm a diva. . . . For those of you who don't know me, I am Geneva Jordan, star of stage, screen, and television. (If you didn't see me accept my Tony, I'm sure you heard my voice singing the 'Sweetie Cat' litterbox and Chef Mustachio Frozen Pizza jingles.) . . ."

Now Geneva Jordan has a command performance in Minnesota, a challenging role set in reality. Making her entrance with her usual flair, she is coming to the rescue of her twin sister, Ann, and Ann's husband, Riley. They desperately need someone to care for their thirteen-year-old son, Rich, a boy with Down's syndrome, while the couple takes their first-ever vacation away from him. Though she and Ann are as different as night and day ("I being night, of course, dark and dramatic"), Geneva remembers she had a family before she had a star on her door. But so accustomed is she to playing the lead, finding herself a supporting actress in someone else's life is strange and unexplored territory.

Leaving behind the bright lights of Manhattan, a tumultuous relationship with a charming (if cheating) Brit--whose tastes run to doe-eyed ingenues--Geneva heads to Deep Lake, Minnesota. Vowing to have the part of June Cleaver (minus the pearls) down flat, she gracefully steps into her role with a determination that she will perform with great panache even if she bombs at navigating the perils of domesticity.

However, life, Geneva soon learns, doesn't always follow even the best of scripts. And just as the guileless Rich and the eccentric folks of Deep Lake begin to open her heart, an unexpected tragedy forever changes the lives of those she has come to care about, forcing her to redefine her own role as well.

Lorna Landvik delivers an extra special treat for readers who relished The Tall Pine Polka and Patty Jane's House of Curl. Hilarious and heart-wrenching, this wonderfully touching story is brilliantly told by a writer with a gift for portraying the dark side of comedy and the lighter side of tragedy to create a harmony that is the very essence of life and love.