As a brilliant child artist, Maud Calhoun put Round Corners, Vermont, on the map with paintings that covered every inch of her house. Now, pressured to paint a mural for her small Vermont home town, she searches for the inspiration that has eluded her for fifteen years. With humor and warmth, Maud struggles to reclaim herself and her art as her tightly knit community's tale unfolds.
Welcome to Maud's House, where the good struggle is played out by an endearing group of locals and a woman who remembers a time when pictures "trickled from my fingers like blood," where there's always beer in the refrigerator and country music on the radio, where everyone will butt into your business and love you to pieces.
And if you draw on the walls - maybe just your initials tucked into the corner of the bathroom above the heating vent - no one will care. Everyone in Round Corners knows how it is: how you can have these uncontrollable urges to leave your mark. In Round Corners, they call it getting the last word in on life.
"Ms. Roberts' talent is evident . . . her novel is lightly salted
with folksy, good-humored insights and peppered with a spunky appreciation of
life's whimsy."
New York Times Book Review
"The novel's quirky details (amusing chapter headings include
"Cows Juggling Pine Cones") and unusual situations bode well for more
. . . from this new talent."
Publishers Weekly
"Roberts' easy style and comic sense are engaging . ."
Library Journal
"[Sherry Roberts] has the proper light touch needed to bring the feisty
citizens of Round Corners, Vermont, to zestful life. Maud's House is a
contemporary rarity: a book that is fun to read."
Fred Chappell, author of I Am One of You Forever
"Discovering Sherry Roberts is joy and absolute delight."
Ruth Moose, author of The Wreath Ribbon Quilt
"If there is such a thing as a reflective madcap comedy, Roberts has
created one with her novel. Maud's House is a funny and angry comedy - the
best kind. And deep in the book's most secret heart, it is about what all
great stories are always about: love and sex and death; or to put the same
ideas another way: community and need and identity."
Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game and The Lost
Boys