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Summary

When Emily’s mother Dulcie dies in a car accident, Emily has no where else to go but to her mother’s old home town to live with a grandfather she has never met. Mullaby, North Carolina feels foreign to Boston-raised Emily, and her gigantic grandfather seems as baffled with her presence as she is by him. Her wonderful mother Dulcie – the philanthropic woman who saved countless lives - is never discussed. And soon she realizes that everyone in town seems to harbor some silent resentment about her mother, and the Dulcie they remember is not the saint who brought up Emily. While most townspeople seem ready to transfer their anger for Dulcie to her daughter, there are others who are curious about her. Win Coffey, a mysterious young man to whom she is drawn like a moth to a flame, knows the source of the bitterness in town, but has a battle of his own to fight, and her neighbour Julia, the woman who bakes exquisite cakes, has a secret of her own, one she cannot even share with her best friend. As a matter of fact, there are many tantalizing and enchanting secrets in Mullaby – wallpaper that changes with one’s mood, strange glowing lights in the woods, denied attractions between old flames, and pent-up sadness and guilt for actions long past. The Girl Who Chased the Moon is Sarah Addison Allen’s third novel, and in it we are again treated to a sensual, charmed story; there is still some darkness – high-school bullying, alienation, self-cutting, teen suicide – but ultimately Emily, Julia, Win and even grandpa Vance show that people do not have to be defined by their pasts and can be free to pursue the future they want, if they have the courage to choose.