"Simply great . . . Burns is as good a writer about the South as you're going to read for a long, long time." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution A classic bestseller, Cold Sassy Tree is the story of Will Tweedy, a fourteen-year-old boy coming of age at the turn of the century in rural Georgia. His grandfather, a recent widower, inspires a whirlwind of gossip in their small town when he marries a woman half his age. Brimming with characters who are wise, unimpeachably pious, and deliciously irreverent, it is a resplendent treasure. The unfinished sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy , follows Will Tweedy into adulthood, as he grapples with the influences of the modern world on his cherished southern hometown. Olive Ann Burns (1924-1990) was born on a farm in Banks County, Georgia. She received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and for ten years was on the Sunday magazine staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . She turned to writing as a respite during treatment for cancer. Her first novel, Cold Sassy Tree , made her a best-selling author at age 60.