About the Book
The #1 "New York Times" bestselling novel explores the bonds of female friendship, the often-rocky relationship between mothers and daughters, and the healing power of humor and love.
Book Synopsis
"A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter." --Washington Post
"Mary McCarthy, Anne Rivers Siddons, and a host of others have portrayed the power and value of female friendships, but no one has done it with more grace, charm, talent, and power than Rebecca Wells." --Richmond Times-Dispatch
The incomparable #1 New York Times bestseller, Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a classic of Southern women's fiction to be read and reread over and over again. A poignant, funny, outrageous, and wise novel about a lifetime friendship between four Southern women, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood brilliantly explores the bonds of female friendship, the often-rocky relationship between mothers and daughters, and the healing power of humor and love, in a story as fresh and uplifting as when it was first published a decade and a half ago. If you haven't yet met the Ya-Yas, what are you waiting for?
From the Back Cover
When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a tap-dancing child abuser. Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. As Sidda struggles to analyze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty of imperfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may call to mind Prince of Tides in its unearthing of family darkness; in its unforgettable heroines and irrepressible humor and female loyalty, it echoes Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Review Quotes
"An enjoyable novel with much to recommend it... It is rich stuff and Wells tells it well."--Seattle Times "A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter."--Washington Post "An entertaining and engrossing novel filled with humor and heartbreak... Readers will envy Vivi her Ya-Ya 'sisters' and Sidda her lover, who is one of the most appealing men to be found in recent mainstream fiction."--Library Journal "Hard to resist...Wells offers up some appealing characters and good stories."--Chicago Tribune "Sensitive, spellbinding... a wonderfully irreverent look at life in small-town Louisiana from the thirties on up through the eyes of the Ya-Yas, a gang of merry, smart, brave, poignant, and unforgettable godesses."--Booklist "Divine Secrets is funny, funny, funny."--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes trying to survive marriage, motherhood, and pain, relying always on eah other... A novel of wide reach and lots of colors: fun in a breathless sort of way."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution "An insightful, delicious novel."--Oregonian "Every woman should have a pack of buddies like the Ya-Yas."--Albuquerque Journal "I read the first two pages and I said... I haven't heard a white woman talk like this in literature before."--Terry McMillan, San Francisco Chronicle "Mary McCarthy, Anne Rivers Siddons, and a host of others have portrayed the power and value of female friendships, but no one has done it with more grace, charm, talent, and power than Rebecca Wells does in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."--Richmond Times-Dispatch "One heck of a rollicking good read..."--Columbus Dispatch "Readers who like their books about the human condition spiced witha Southern drawl won't want to miss this one."--Mississippi Sun Herald "The sweet and sad and goofy monkey-dance of life, as performed by a bevy of unforgettable Southern belles in a verdant garden of moonlit prose. Poignantly coo-coo, the Ya-Yas (and their Petites Ya-Yas) will prance, priss, ponder and party their way into your sincere affection."--Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas "Unforgettable... By turns comic and poignant, Wells' latest entry fulfills the promise of her award-winning debut novel, Little Altars Everywhere. It speaks eloquently to what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a wife -- and somehow, at last, a person."--Charlotte Observer "Wells' Louisiana is thick with sensual excesses -- bayou French, pralines and sour cream cookies, crayfish etouffee, honeysuckle-smothered trellises, camellias and jasmine... In Divine Secrets, you can hear the ice cubes clink on every page... Wells' book succeeds marvelously."--Seattle Weekly
