A review by bethreadsandnaps
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

4.0

I really liked this one. Scandal rocks the town of Cold Sassy when a man who was recently widowed remarries within a few weeks. Told from the perspective of his grandson, it's so astounding in how it resonates and how the grandson is the only one to see the relationship evolve besides the grandfather and his new wife. It's a seemingly small story in a small town (about 1/3 of the way through I was thinking how we're "still" on this "scandal" so it can plod along at times; I didn't know the whole novel was about this "scandal"). However, I think it's a much bigger story.

One point of confusion - I read this book for my library's reading challenge as an alternate history book. This was on the list for that. This is definitely set close after the end of the Civil War, so I presume the alternate history part is that the South won the Civil War ... although I didn't grasp that from this book, and that definitely isn't the main thrust of the book.