The Big Beautiful

The critically acclaimed author returns to the North Carolina landscape she knows so well with this gloriously written sequel to Moon Women.

On an eastbound North Carolina interstate highway, the mountains and her hometown far behind, Cassandra Moon realizes that she has not only broken the heart of the one man who's ever asked her to marry—on their wedding day, no less—but she's driven the limousine into the ground, gotten "skunk drunk" on the champagne, and has somehow managed to get herself stuck in the sunroof while still in her wedding gown. Caught in a whirlwind of taffeta and tulle, heartache and second guesses, Cassandra desperately needs some peace of mind. When she arrives in the coastal town of Salter Path—disheveled and in the company of a mysterious red-haired seafaring man—Cassandra knows for sure that her life has taken a turn she can't quite understand. But the people Cassandra encounters on this unexpected odyssey will share with her the hurts and hopes of a lifetime, and she may finally realize that getting lost in this oceanside town, in the memories and dreams of its people, is the only way she'll be found.

At the age of forty, Cassandra Moon finds herself stuck on a North Carolina interstate in a "borrowed" limosine, having left the only man who has ever asked her to marry him on their wedding day, an experience that leads her to a life changing journey of self-discovery. Original. 37,500 first printing.

Pamela Duncan was born in Asheville in 1961 and raised in Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Shelby, North Carolina. She holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in English and creative writing from North Carolina Sate University in Raleigh. She lives in Graham, North Carolina.