Big Stone Gap Books In Order

Publication Order of Big Stone Gap Books

The Big Stone Gap series is a series of fiction novels revolving around women and written by the well known American author Adriana Trigiani. There is a total of 4 books published in the series between the years 2000 and 2006. All the novels of the series are set in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is considered as a sleepy hamlet located in the Blue Ride Mountains. The time period of the novels of the series is set during the year 1978. The overall plot of the series follows the story of a 35 year old woman known as Ave Maria Mulligan, who is described as a self-proclaimed spinster and a local pharmacist of the town. Author Adriana Trigiani began writing the novels of the series in the year 2000 and by the start of the following year, she had completed and published the first novel of the series titled ‘Big Stone Gap’.

On the whole, the series proves to be a satisfying read to the readers and depicts the unique skill of author Adriana Trigiani in making the readers laugh and cry at the same time. She has very well described the touching tale of a sleepy town in the south and a young woman who seems to be on the brink of discovering her own self and accept her life as it is. Even the secondary characters of the series are delightfully described by author Adriana Trigiani. She has done an unerring portrayal of the singular personalities in a delightful way, which brings poignancy and humor in the richly drawn life of Ave Maria Mulligan in the small town of Big Stone Gap. The story of the series is made to shine with the descriptions of the day to day details in the lives of the people of the charming and tiny backwater town of Big Stone Gap in Virginia. The success of the series has also allowed it to be adapted into a motion picture made by a major production house in Hollywood. The film stars Ashley Judd, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Krakowski, Jenna Elfman, Patrick Wilson, John Benjamin Hickey, and Anthony LaPaglia.

The first novel of the Bog Stone Gap series was published under the title ‘Big Stone Gap’. It was released by the Fawcett Books publishing house in the year 2000. The plot of the novel is set in the town of Big Stone Gap, located in Virginia, United States, and revolves around the lives of the primary characters named Pearl Grimes, Theodore Tipton, Fleeta Mullins, Ave Maria Mulligan, Elizabeth Taylor, Betty Slagle, Mario Barbari, etc. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, the town of Big Stone Gap is described as a tiny town located in the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to a few of the most charming eccentrics in the state of Virginia. Also, the main character of the series, Ave Maria Mulligan, is introduced as the self-proclaimed spinster of the town. She is aged around 35 years and also works as an old pharmacist of the town. She possesses the body of a mountain girl with a flat behind.

Ave Maria is described as living an amiable life along with some of her good friends, working with a lot of hobbies. Her life seemed to be quite satisfactory until the day in the year 1978 when her fate took a surprising turn. She comes to know that she is actually not the one who she has always thought herself to be. And before she could think of something, she begins to receive marriage proposals, fight against the greedy members of her family. Ave Maria Mulligan also gets busy with organizing celebration parties for the visiting celebrities as well as planning a trip of a lifetime. This trip appears to change the way Ave Maria looks at the world and also establish her own value in her life forever. The novel became a huge success worldwide because of the widely depicted wise and humorous notions of the life in a small town. On the whole, it proved to be a wonderful book having a giant heart.

The second novel of the Big Stone Gap series written by author Adriana Trigiani was published by the Pocket Books publishing house in the year 2001. It was titled as ‘Big Cherry Holler’ and continued to depict the main characters in the form of Ave Maria Mulligan, Pete Rutledge, Pearl Grimes, Fleeta Mullins, Etta Mac Chesney, etc. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, author Adriana Trigiani has shown that eight years passed since the marriage of the old pharmacist and spinster named Ave Maria Mulligan with the coal miner named Jack MacChesney. Throughout the years after her marriage, Ave Maria had not thought that the ghosts from her past life will come to haunt her and test her love for her husband. After her marriage, she had started believing in love and had started making a satisfactory life for herself and her family, and hopes that the happiness will stay in her life forever. But after the arrival of the ghosts from her past back into her life again, she fears about the destruction of her happy married life.

Eventually, the mountain walls of her town do not spare her from learning about the important lessons of life. The plot of the novel tells the story about a marriage, revelation of deep secrets, betrayal, power struggle, and expectations existing between a husband and his wife. It also tells the story of a community which is required to reinvent itself at the time of the decline of the coal industry. When Ave Maria Mulligan visits Italy along with her daughter, she comes a handsome stranger who promises her to provide a happy life beyond the small town of Virginia. Due to this, she is forced to decide what is really important to her marriage, her family, and herself. Overall, the novel gives a description of humor, honesty, wisdom, and drama in the colorful life of the people of the mountains, and takes the readers all over from Virginia to Italy. In the end, it is a brilliantly evoked and deeply felt story of a couple of lovers, who seem to have lost their path and struggle to find each other again.