When clever, accomplished Prudencia Prim accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San lreneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The villagers, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure.

Prudencia had hoped for friendship in San lreneo but didn't suspect that she might find love—nor that her new life would offer challenge and heartache as well as joy, discovery and fireside debate. Set against a backdrop of steaming cups of tea, freshly baked cakes and lovely company, The Awakening of Miss Prim is a distinctive and delightfully entertaining tale of literature, philosophy and the search for happiness.

From the back of the Abacus reprint