Summary

Ella Minnow Pea is the story of a small island located just off the coast of South Carolina. The island is an autonomous nation which asserted its independence from the U.S. in the mid-eighteenth century. In the Nollopton town center is a cenotaph positioned near a statue of Nevin Nollop, after whom the island is named. The sentence on the cenotaph reads, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Since there is limited telephone service on the island — the result of a recent hurricane — the islanders have taken to writing letters. When letters begin to fall from the 100 year-old cenotaph, Nollopian society begins to unravel as letters and language slowly begin to disappear.

Ella Minnow Pea writes to tell her cousin Tassie Purcy that one of the letters from the cenotaph fell...