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Winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction for 2013
After Queenie Wake is dismissed from her restaurant job, she returns to North Star to cook meals for death row inmates.
Hopeful that the bad memories of her late mother and promiscuous sister (now the mother of the captain of the high school football team) have been forgotten by the locals, Queenie discovers that some people can’t be forgotten—heartbreaker Everett Coburn—her old high-school sweetheart.
When secrets from the past emerge, will Queenie be able to stick by her family or will she leave home again?
Liza Palmer’s Nowhere But Home is a funny and touching story of food, football, and fooling around.
Press & Reviews:
“A heart-wrenching tale told with true wisdom and a brilliant wit…An uplifting reading experience.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Popular chick-lit author Palmer (More like Her, 2012) moves into women’s fiction as she offers her clever spin on the theme of coming home again. Queenie Wake left behind North Star, Texas, her family’s reputation as the town harlots, and Everett, the childhood love who broke her heart, for a string of culinary jobs in cities across the country. Now she’s back and living with her sister, Merry Carole, who has tried to put the past behind her by running the town’s best beauty shop and raising an upstanding son, Cal, who’s the quarterback of the football team. And Queenie’s running a kitchen, albeit one at a Texas prison making death-row inmate’s last meals. Returning home forces her to make peace with the people who tried to shame her for her mother’s indiscretions and to confront Everett about their unresolved feelings. Palmer deftly covers the complicated ground of family and hometown loyalty in this funny, poignant novel.”
—Booklist, Aleksandra Walker
“Nowhere But Home is a nice, warm snack.”
—New York Journal of Books
“This warm, funny and emotionally authentic story about a chef who finds herself begrudgingly back in her hometown not only met expectations, it’s most certainly destined to be one of my favorite reads of 2013.”
—Clear Eyes, Full Shelves
“This book disrupted my focus in the best way. I simply had to curl up with it and accompany Queenie on her unenviable journey. As always with a Liza Palmer story, the painful and the beautiful walk hand in hand. Everything from the relationship between the sisters to the breathless love story to the mouth-watering food is carefully orchestrated and perfectly delivered. Nowhere But Home waltzed onto my Best of 2013 list before the dust had settled. Recommended for fans of Friday Night Lights, comfort food, and top-notch storytelling.”
—Angieville
“Palmer ( More Like Her ) uses details about cooking and high school football to create a vivid picture of small-town Texas. The characters are fully realized and the setting authentic. This appetizing, colorful tale of a young woman finding herself and finding love again will please readers who enjoy smart chick lit.”
—Library Journal, Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Br azoria Cty. Lib. System, TX
Last Meals and Knowing what Matters, San Francisco Book Review
Queenie Wake’s Chicken Fried Steak and Cream Gravy, The Secret Ingredient