Each story in this almost-novel features a defining event in the life of a resident of the small town of Millford. Some characters get more than one story, featuring them at different ages; often some details of a previous story are present in a later one, giving another character's perspective on an event. Between the stories are chapters in which we follow the frame story: the narrator is a social worker who is telling stories to an invalid woman, who requests that each story somehow incorporate a piece of green ribbon she keeps beside her. These frame-story conversations always touch on the overgrown hedge around the woman's house. This device tires a bit in the middle, but the reader is rewarded in the end when the ribbon, the hedge, and the identity of the old woman all connect thematically. Most effective and enchanting is the way the stories are rendered in the style of old-fashioned "strange tales." Typical is the story of an older woman who goes downtown on a day when daffodils are being given away and can't find any of the vendors although people are streaming by all around her clutching the flowers. She goes home, disappointed, only to find her yard strewn with hundreds of cast-off daffodils. The book is the winner of the 1993 Western State Book Award for Fiction. ~--Deb Robertson

Crossing through the hedge, which grows ever thicker and more tangled, the narrator tries comforting the elderly woman in her care by telling her stories. All of them incorporate a ribbon in some fashion, symbolically or literally. This element, plus the recurring locales, characters, and details, join the individual stories into a cohesive whole. A surprise ending reveals the elderly woman's identity. The stories' simplicity is disarming and their power is magical, as when Angela Mona Zoey makes the snow fall harder and faster by believing in it and persuading others to believe in it too. Or when William Twelveclocks, fascinated by the sound of ticking timepieces, collects and returns missing articles to their rightful owner. In fact, most of the narrator's tales demonstrate that unshakable beliefs can keep a spirit alive and overcome adversity. Winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award for Fiction, Orlock's book is a joy to read.-- Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.