Carol Bruneau

A thoughtful work of contemporary fiction set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, about an overworked florist fighting to protect her small business, her coastal home, and her floundering family, from the beloved author of Threshold and Brighten the Corner Where You Are.

Basically, the world has two types of people?those who garden and those who don't.

Isla Fownes knows flowers. After running her shop, Flower Power!, in the Halifax suburb of Fairfield for nearly fifteen years, she can make a casket spray in her sleep. (She also knows that no one complains if funeral roses don?t bloom.)

A dedicated mother and daughter on the cusp of fifty, Isla spends every spare minute caring for her aging father, Arthur, a passionate conservationist, and her aimless daughter, Rache, an out-of-work would-be artist who's just shared the surprising news of her pregnancy (and just who is the father?). That is, until a handsome widower's sailboat unceremoniously sinks in the waters off her Northwest Arm home, and Isla is saved from a Brönte-like spinsterdom. If only Lester would stop talking about how much her home might be worth.

In a city eroding both physically and spiritually, "hopelessly" romantic Isla struggles to keep her flower shop afloat despite the threat of conglomerates, vandals, and petty criminals; protect her coveted property from vulture capitalists, infilling, and soulless "starter castles"; and shore up her heart as she asks herself, once and for all, what kind of love she deserves.

From one of Canada's most beloved storytellers and "a master" (Quill & Quire) of her craft, Carol Bruneau's The Little Way is a profound and authentic portrayal of one woman's mission to redefine herself on her own terms.