When theatre director Siddalee Walker inadvertently reveals some of the less-savory facts of her Southern childhood to the New York Times, the article brands her mother, Vivi, a "tap-dancing child abuser." When Vivi virtually disowns Sidda over it, Sidda panics and postpones her upcoming wedding. But Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.
The Ya-Yas, an inseparable and indomitable foursome who grew up together in the small town of Thornton, Louisiana, persuade Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of girlhood mementos entitled "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." With the scrapbook in hand, Sidda retreats to a cabin on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, intent on discovering the key to the swirling mix of anger and tenderness she feels toward her mother. Through a series of flashbacks from Sidda's current crisis to Vivi's youth and early motherhood, the"Divine Secrets" will reveal themselves to you through Rebecca Wells' vibrant, irresistible voice.
It's an incisive look at the tangled relationship between mother and daughter, with its countless emotional shiftings from dark to light, love to resentment, bonding to breaking free.
Rebecca Wells is a novelist, actor, and playwright. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, Ya-Yas in Bloom, Little Altars Everywhere (winner of the Western States Book Award), and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (winner of the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award, short-listed for the Orange Prize), which was made into a feature film.
She performs from her work internationally and her books have been translated into twenty-three languages. A native of Louisiana, she now makes her home in Nashville, with her spaniel Mercy.
