Mason, Missouri

The primary setting for the novel, the hometown of the members of Confession Club, is the hub of author Elizabeth Berg's fictional universe where a trilogy of novels has been set. It is a place of traditional Midwestern values, but full of charming, eccentric and complex characters whose quirks, flaws and secrets surprise and confound the reader while providing the narrative's dramatic and emotive elements. A fictional, "sensible" place, not far from the comparatively pretentious and high-minded college town of Columbia, Mason is home to a number of popular, apparently successful and high-quality small businesses like Polly's Henhouse, The Menagerie Bookstore, Smith's Hardware, Gretchen's boutique, The Chicken and the Egg restaurant, and a fine, small library. With the exception of Iris, who has moved to Mason from Boston for unexplained reasons, Abby and Jason, who recently moved there from Chicago, and John the drifter, the novel's other...