Deep in the Shade of Paradise : A Novel

Welcome to Shiver-de-Freeze, a boot-shaped precinct deep in the Louisiana swamp, famous for its healing waters and curious fauna.

Grisham Loudermilk is marrying Ariane Thevenot at Paradise, the family s ancestral home, and we're here for the wedding.

But reason and love, it would seem, keep little company in Paradise these days: Grisham s cousin Adlai Birdsong has fallen desperately in love with the bride-to-be.

Adlai s ill-advised courtship proceeds even as his daddy, Royce, struggles to recall his past in the face of Alzheimer s; as Father Pat McDermott realizes his passion for the mother of the bride; as the conjoined twins, Tous-les-Deux, train their eyes on Boudou Fontana, the last of the star-crossed Fontana clan. And just when it seems that Adlai must resign himself to a prolonged season of bachelorhood, Miranda Ferry, Grisham s recent lover, wanders into town unawares.

With his signature tragic-comic voice and cast of unforgettable and lively characters, Dufresne explores love, death, imagination, and memory.

Reading group guide available."