This was by far one of the most delightful books I have read in a long time.
The Lumby Lines: A Novel is much more than a story set in a little town; rather, it's the story of a small town. The author provides for a wonderful journey straight into the heart of Lumby as well as an exploration of the nature of what makes small towns anything but boring. For those of you who know the show, Lumby Line: A Nobel reminds me a lot of the Canadian TV show Corner Gas; by the last page of this book, just like by the end of the first season of Corner Gas, you feel like you know everyone who lives in this quaint yet quirky little town. In fact, it sometimes almost feels like you actually live in there.
Lumby is called home by many attention-grabbing characters whose antics quickly carve them a place in the reader's heart. It's a small town in the Northwest nestled amongst rolling hills, and the kind of place where nothing happens.
That is, until the day East coasters Pam and Mark Walker arrive in town.
Overworked and exhausted, the Walkers' marriage is starting to fall apart just as their health starts suffering from their typical East Coast go-go-go attitude. And so, on their annual get-away, they come across beautiful Montis Abbey, an abandoned place, a large chunk of which has been burned to the ground, surrounded by plus, peach and apple orchards. The couple decides to snap it up, restore both the place and its orchards, and reopen it as an inn, whose operations will be supported by money made from selling the orchards' fruits. They leave before relatively anonymous big city life and high paying jobs to settle in what they hope is going to be restorative small town life.
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