It was about four years ago, the last trip we ever took together--my mother, sister, grandparents and me. Course, we didn't know it at the time. You never know something like that, like it's the last one you'll ever get, till it's just a memory, hanging like mist. This is what happened that summer, true as I can tell it. Not a one of us was ever the same." Part road trip, part mystery, and completely unexpected, Saving Cicadas picks you up in one place and puts you down someplace else entirely. It's an eloquent reminder that life is a miracle--and even the smallest soul is a gift. "...a surprisingly creative tale that will leave readers guessing until the end." -River Jordan, author of Saints in LimboEditorial ReviewsFrom Publishers WeeklyThis beguiling, inspirational family-first tale from Lowcountry native Seitz (A Hundred Years of Happiness) follows the revelatory and haunting journey of a single mother from South Carolina who discovers she's pregnant and needs to clear her head to plan her next step. Priscilla Lynn Macy quits her job and hits the road with her daughters, Rainey Dae, 17, who has Down syndrome, and Janie Doe, her precocious eight-year-old. Grandma Mona's in the backseat with her husband, Poppy Grayson. Janie's and Grandma Mona's perspectives on Priscilla's situation invigorate Seitz's folksy prose as Priscilla looks for Harlan Bradfield, Janie's dad, who took off one day on his motorcycle. The tribe ends up at the Macy ancestral home in Forest Pines, S.C., where Priscilla reconnects with her half-brother, Pastor Fritz Rosier, who helps her make peace with past mistakes and to decide about the future. Seitz has a gift for creating wonderful characters, especially the young girls, and while she's strident in her antiabortion stance, this tale's spooky sweet dnouement includes a magical twist about spirited little Janie that's marvelously memorable. (Dec.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.