Leaving Cold Sassy

Book excerpt: “A gift” for those who loved the heartwarming million-copy bestseller Cold Sassy Tree (The New York Times). Anyone who came under the spell of Olive Ann Burns’s classic novel Cold Sassy Tree will delight in Leaving Cold Sassy, which returns to the story of the unforgettable Will Tweedy. In 1917, twenty-five-year-old Will now faces the complexities of adult life. He grapples with the influences of the modern world on his cherished Georgia hometown, which has recently been renamed Progressive City, and he finds his wife-to-be in a feisty young schoolteacher named Sanna Klein. Burns had completed fifteen chapters of this novel by the time of her death in 1990, and she expressed her wish for them to be published, as they are here, with her notes for future scenes. In addition, Burns’s longtime editor and friend, Katrina Kenison, leaves us with an appreciative reminiscence of the beloved author and the legacy she left behind. “This is all the news from Cold Sassy we will ever have and its scarcity makes it more precious.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution