Under the Magnolias

Lowe (Beach Haven) delivers a powerful coming-of-age story set on a Magnolia, S.C., tobacco farm in the 1980s. After 13-year-old Austin Foster’s mother dies, her father, David, teeters between lucidity and episodes of rage and hostility, leaving Austin to run the farm and take charge of her six younger siblings. David also pastors a small group of misfits in the small chapel on his nearby property. Known as the First Riffraff of Magnolia, the congregation consists of a Holocaust survivor, a tight-lipped African American couple, the local mortician, an exonerated ex-convict, and a flamboyant hairdresser. After Austin’s father is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she spends a difficult seven years trying to hold her family together. Then Vance Cumberland, the mayor’s son, takes a romantic interest in her. Despite a mutual attraction, Austin’s fear that her father’s mental illness will be exposed causes her to shy away. But then David publicly attempts to kill himself, prompting Austin to accept help from the community of Magnolia. The many colorful Magnolia characters, particularly the eccentrics of First Riffraff, rise to support Austin and nicely round out the slow-burning romance. Lowe’s fans will be thrilled. (May)