An Unexpected Break in the Weather

A Rose on Corydon is a bridal shop like no other. With a staircase spiraling around a pillar that is a floor-to-ceiling aquarium stocked with tropical fish, and an unrivalled eclectic selection, A Rose on Corydon has been the city’s go-to bridal salon for three decades. At the center of the novel are seven women: Milly and Gertrude, A Rose’s owners, Jeannette, their assistant, Perfume, who is heading to the altar for the fourth time, and her bridal party–Agnes, Dorien, Wordy–and Arlie, a thirteen-year-old cancer survivor with insight beyond her years.As they enter their seventies, Milly and Gertrude have decided it’s time to close the business. Millie is laid-up with a broken leg and there’s no-one to pass the store to, (except their very estranged daughter, Isadore). They decide to host Perfume’s wedding and make it their closing-out party and have everyone, even the men, don taffeta wedding wear. But when Wordy is diagnosed with cancer, the event begins to look less like a wedding and more like an outrageous living wake.This poetic and graceful novel grapples with the meaning of friendship, family estrangement, and how we care for the ill and the elderly.