The Blue Iris.

A stop at the Blue Iris flowershop brings Tessa a sudden reminiscence of her late mother andleads her to impulsively take a summer job there, while the staffwho form a dysfunctional family remain off balance in the wake ofthe disappearance of Sam, the wandering alcoholic brother whohas failed to reemerge as usual for the season. Fiction/General Fiction (including literary and historical) Reviews The Blue IrisKoehler BooksRachel Stone, 22.95 (380p)ISBN 979-8-88824-093-9 Stone debuts a gorgeous literary novel with a nostalgic aestheticand themes of complex friendships, family trauma, and healingthrough self-discovery. Sam is mosteffective as a missing presence in the life of the flower shop;snippets of his point of view, written in free verse, feel by contrastunderdeveloped. [Extracted from the article]